WolfBoy
by Fawn Silverstream
Summary: ABANDONED!For four years, Harry's been missing. Now, eight years after Lily and James' death, Sirius sets out on a mission for Dumbledore. He meets a very special parthuman...rnAdvice is welcome, but I don't appreciate flames, thanks. Story rated for la
1. Prologue

Prologue

All was quiet in the little town that was situated in Nothern Scotland. The small gardens and not too large park lay abandoned as all people were inside now that night had fallen. Only the stray cat or wild dog roamed around for thrash in the garbage binns or rats in the sewer. It was still warm, though the cloudless air would start to cool off soon enough on this day at the very end of July.

Then, from the forest at the edge of the village, a figure seemed to appear out of nowhere, though if there had been any bystanders, they'd probably have sworn the figure came from the depths of the forest. The man, for it was certainly a man, albeit a young one, was rather short and could be called chubby. His hair was dirty blonde and when he looked up at the half moon for a moment, his pale blue eyes could be seen. He started moving towards the town. His pace was shakily and nervous, though the closer he got to the little town, the more he seemed to hide it.

He arrived at a home that stood a bit out of the town and after a second of hesitating, knocked on the door.

Almost immediately, the door was swung open.

"Finally! What took you so long, Peter?" The young man who opened the door asked. He was of average height and rather thin. His hair was a sandy brown and his eyes were a gentle blue with darker flecks through it. "We Floo'd you hours ago!"

"Sorry, Remus, but I couldn't leave right away. I came as fast as I could. Has it arrived yet?"

"No, come on inside. I can't leave Sirius alone for too long. He's even more nervous and agitated than James. James is with Lily and the Midwitch."

Remus led Peter out of the hall, into a cosy living room. In it were a few others, another young man, of the same age as Remus and Peter, around twenty, with silky black hair that was longish, but didn't go past his neck. He was tall and had a strong built. His eyes dark-blue and his ear sported a silver ring with what looked like a black piece of fur hanging from it. He was pacing the room, his eyes never leaving a certain door. Further, there were two older people. A man and a woman, sitting on the couch. The man had blonde hair, while the woman was goldenbrown.

The woman was the first to speak.

"Hello Peter, trouble at work?"

"Something like that." The short man nodded.

"Well, you didn't miss too much. According to the Midwitch, it should only take a few more minutes, so you came just in time." The oldest man said.

Remus then said annoyed. "Sirius! Plant your arse down for a while! You're driving me nutters!"

"Yes, Sirius, listen to the Prefect. He might not be in school anymore, but you'd better beware!" Peter said with a grin.

"Oh shut it, Pete! Besides, James was Head Boy, go bugger him."

"No can't do, he's not here."

Remus merely chuckled as Peter sat down on a second armchair. Sirius stayed quiet, which was a very good indication to his nerves; Sirius was _never_ quiet! The older pair just looked amused between the youngsters.

Fifteen minutes passed in silence as Sirius continued wearing a hole in the carpet and no sound came from the other room, as the Midwitch had placed a Silencing Charm on the door.

Then, finally, the door opened and the Midwitch stepped out, followed by a beaming messy black-haired young man, carrying a bundle of sheets in his arms.

Sirius was immediately with the other black-haired young man.

"And?"

Every head was turned to the messy haired man with the hazel eyes.

"It's a boy!"

"Hah!" Sirius said. "I _knew_ it!"

"Oh God!" Remus exclaimed. "Now he'll be even more insufferable!"

"I see the old Sirius is back again?" Mr. Evans remarked.

"Away with the calm." Peter sighed dramatically. Sirius whacked him on top of his head.

They all milled around then to get a good look at James Jr.

Once friends and grandparents had looked at the small bundle of human sleeping peacefully in his Father's arms, they looked expectantly at the just-turned-Father.

James pretended not to see the inquisitive looks that were directed at him and just looked fondly at his son that looked so much like him already.

Mr. Evans then cleared his throat, making James look up innocently, feighning to be shocked.

"Oh! You're probably waiting for his name!"

"Of course not! We're waiting for him to sprout antlers!" Sirius said sarcastically.

"With flowers in it." Peter added mock-seriously.

Everyone chuckled or laughed at that.

"Oh, well, I'll just go away again then." James said, half turning around.

"Just tell us already!" Remus exclaimed.

"Fine, fine. Because you ask it so nicely." James said. He then drew up his chest and cleared his throat importantly. "My son, Heir to the Potter-family and future Quidditch-player for Gryffindor and World-Cup winner for England, will be called as of now; Harry James Potter!"

Fifteen months later, in the middle of the night, a small boy with messy black hair and green eyes was laid on the doorstep in front of a house in somewhere in Surrey, wrapped in a bundle of blankets and two men and a woman walked away with heavy hearts.

The next morning, a black-robed man with flashing darkblue eyes strode through a certain castle named Hogwarts, on his way towards the headmaster. Miles away from Surrey.

As he reached the statue of a gargoyle, the man started listing off numerous sweets and swore loudly when the gargoyle didn't move to any one of them.

"Damnit Dumbledore! Just get down here!" He yelled at the gargoyle.

Luckily, at that moment, the gargoyle started to move and out came a tall royal-robed wizard with white hair and beard.

"Ah, Sirius," He said amiably. "I thought I heard someone here. Why don't you come up." The wize wizard then turned and climbed the stairs that were behind the gargoyle again.

Impatiently and slightly annoyed, the young man followed the Headmaster into his circular office, that was still filled with portraits of former Headmasters.

The Headmaster sat down behind his desk.

"How did it go with Mr. Pettigrew?"

"He's been sent to Azkaban, an anti-Animagus spell placed on him to last a lifetime." Sirius growled dangerously. "But where is Harry!"

"He's been taken to a safe place." Albus Dumbledore said, folding his long thin fingers.

"What! Where! Why!" Sirius exclaimed.

"I've placed him with his Aunt and Uncle in Little Whinging. He'll be safe there."

"His Aunt and – Dumbledore! They hate Lily! And James even more! Harry'll be – We're his Godparents! We're supposed to take care of him now that – " Sirius swallowed. Hard. "You can't just send him to those... those... _Muggles!"_ Sirius exclaimed finally.

"Sirius! Calm down! I know Lily and James appointed you to take care of Harry, but – there are certain things that need to be cared of too. Voldemort might be gone for now, but his followers are not. And they're sure to want revenge for the demise of their master. Through his Mother's blood, I've placed a protection on the Dursley residence to keep him from being harmed there."

"But Lily's told me often enough that Petunia didn't even wanted to acknowledge her when she was at home! How could Harry ever live normally with them!" Sirius said heatedly, not even really trying to keep his rage in check.

"I've written them a letter and they understand the situation. I'm sure it will work out fine. I've also placed a confidant of mine there to keep an eye on things."

"Dumbledore, you can't – !"

Dumbledore held up his hand to silence Sirius.

"My decision is final. It's the safest place for Harry to be and I insist you keep out of this!"

The man oppisite the Headmaster glowered, but kept his comments, knowing it was no use.

Sirius swept out of the room, leaving the Headmaster to his office.

He sighed and rubbed his eyes behind the halfmoon glasses.

"I really wish I could let him take care of young Harry Potter, Fawkes, I really wish I could..."

_So, here's my very first chapter. I hope you liked it. I'll put up the next chapter really soon, I promise, but first: Please Review?_


	2. First Sighting

_This story will begin in mainly Sirius' POV, though will shift to Harry's more often as the story continues. I'll try to make it as clear as possible. And now, on to the story..._

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A black-coated man was striding down one of the many alley's of a small village that was currently dark because of the lack of light, though the temperature was still stiffling hot. His coat was long and reached to his ankles, though below his waist, it wasn't closed, so his dark (almost black) red leather pants and black boots were visible beneath it. He had his hood up, so he was nearly invisible in the darkness. That wasn't something uncommon though, as most people didn't show their features around these alley's. With a sigh of contentment, he reached his motorcycle that stood parked on the side. The bike was a large racing motorcycle. It was a very dark metallic red, with metallic yellow parts on it which made it look even faster.

Stepping on it, he revved the engine before taking off, though he had to limit his speed as he wasn't yet done in the village yet. He'd be most happy to leave, but unfortunately, he had business here, so he rode towards a biker café and parked his bike before entering the café, not at all falling out of place in the smokey pub. He went straight for the bar and ordered a beer, the only thing he knew how to call in Vietnamese. He payed for the drink then turned so he could oversee the pub. He was supposed to be looking for suspicious men. Problem was, there wasn't another kind in the bar. So he kept his eyes open for any signs.

His mission was to find out who the wizards (or witches) were that sabotaged many motorbikes in the illegal streetraces. Even though they were mainly in the US, streetraces had also manifested here and in other countries. The local government couldn't, or wouldn't, do anything about it, but a personal friend of Professor Dumbledore had asked for help, as his son had nearly been killed by one of the bikes when it went cartwheeling through the street. So here Sirius was, in the middle of the summer, in a bar in Vietnam, trying to find a needle in a haystack.

The man in black, who went by the name of Sirius, contemplated the reason he was here. For a year now, he was employed by Professor Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Though why he'd let himself be persuaded to teach in the first place was still a mystery to him sometimes. For all those children only reminded him of the one he'd lost four years ago, something he still partly blamed Dumbledore for.

Suddenly, one of the many men yelled something, snapping Sirius out of his thoughts, and almost immediately, the bar started emptying. In a second, Sirius had downed his beer and followed the mass outside, where the first were already driving away. He, too, mounted his bike and took off with the mass.

They drove towards the largest road in the village, where by now it was crawling with motorriders. Sirius drove through them and after twenty minutes, was certain they wouldn't be racing anytime soon, as litterally every rider and the girls that came with them were filing into a large abandoned warehouse. Parking his bike and placing a Non-Theft Hex on it, Sirius also moved there, wondering what could be going on.

Squeezing through the crowd he noticed to his astonishment that many people were carrying wands quite openly. There would be practically _no way_ he would be able to figure out who he was looking for, since _all_ of the riders seemed to be wizards (including a few witches). Walking on, he came to a large cage with sand on the floor of it. On a certain spot not too far from the edge of the cage, numerous men were crowding around one man and by the looks of it, handing him money and they got pieces of paper back for it.

'They're placing bet's!' The black-dressed man concluded. 'There's going to be cage-fighting!'

The cage opened and a relatively young man, he looked to be in his twenties, stepped in, carrying two short Japanese swords, also called Wakazashi's. The man looked full of himself and made a round in the ring, being cheered on by many of the crowd, raising his Wakazashi's and making slashing motions in the air, before positioning himself at the opposite end of the cage of where the 'door' was.

The cage door opened again, but this time no-one stepped through, untill a black figure stumbled in, seemingly having been pushed in. And the crowd howled with laughter. The black figure then straightened a bit, though his shoulders remained slumped and he looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here. He looked nothing like a normal human though. He was completely covered with black fur that was matted and dull-looking. From his only clothing, short dark-blue tattered shorts, came a wolf's tail that was currently between his legs. And his head was more a wolf's head, besides the long black hair that reached to his shoulders. His ears were nearly invisible in it, as they were flattened against his head. His eyes were downcast and he quivered slightly, to the amusement of the crowd. He looked no older then ten, though, if even that, and Sirius felt anger rise at the person that made this kid fight with the Wakazashi's against the much older man.

A signal was given with a gong and the man charged forward, both Wakazashi's slashing downwards. The wolf-boy was prepared though and parried the attack with his own swords. The man remained attacking, while the boy kept parrying and slowly moved backwards, untill he was in a corner and couldn't get anywhere.

They kept duelling, untill the inevitable came and the boy was slashed across the chest. A howl resounded, though wether from pain or anger wasn't clear, as the boy's eyes had snapped up from looking at the ground, into the man's eyes. They were a stunning green and seemed to shine with an eary light, the catlike pupils narrowing. The man, who had both his Wakazashi's parried by the boy's ones again, delt out a kick that hit the boy's side, and the boy growled low, his whole stance changing in the blink of an eye. His tail, neck- and back-hairs rose, claws extended from his toes and his teeth were bared, showing his sharp canines.

With his clawed feet, he kicked the man in one of his knees, making the man stumble slightly, giving the boy enough room to jump and kick the man in the stomach, though his claws didn't do any damage, almost like he didn't want them to. The man stumbled back even more, he barely had time to recover though, as this time the boy opened the attack with the Wakazashi's.

The man recovered quickly though and fought back. Now the fight seemed more equally matched, even though the man was still twice the size of the boy. They went back and forth, both earning small cuts that didn't really matter.

The boy was tiring though, that could be seen clearly. His fur was soaked with sweat and blood from the chest-wound that was still bleeding freely. His attacks and parry's were becoming slower, untill he was once again in full defense. With one of the man's violent slashes, the boy lost one of his Wakazashi's.

Sirius held his breath as the boy was doing his best with his one Wakazashi, itching to use his wand to stun the man, but didn't do it, for he was sure he wouldn't be able to get out of the warehouse alive if he did.

The boy then lost his second Wakazashi too. Sirius wanted to close his eyes as the man jumped forward with a cry of victory, but he couldn't. Then his eyes widened as the boy rolled out of the way, extending his claws from his fingers now too, slashing open the man's back and both hollows of the knees. The man whirled with a cry, his Wakazashi's slashing menacingly, but the boy ducked and slashed open the man's thigh, then he rolled backwards and picked up his Wakazashi's in a fluid motion. In a second he was on his feet again and shot forward.

The man, still struggling to stay on his feet, fell on his knees, emitting another cry. The boy slashed his Wakazashi's outwards, and the man's ones fell to the floor. The boy then put his Wakazashi's at the man's throat in a crosslike manner and said a short word in the form of a question. The man hesitated, then uttered the word resignedly.

That one word made the crowd go wild and many looked furious, though a few were delighted and approached the man that had inned all the cash to get their winnings. The boy stepped back from the man and walked towards the cage door that opened.

A heavily built man awaited the wolf-boy and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. The boy winced slightly, but didn't try getting away from the man, so Sirius figured the man was probably the boy's guardian, or parent, though he doubted the latter, the boy looked too familiar for that. As soon as the boy had stepped out of the cage, his whole composure melted away, untill he was just a shivering, frightened kid again.

Wanting to have a really long talk to the man that held the boy, Sirius never left his eyes from the man and tried to follow him, though that was hard to do, since the whole crowd seemed intent to congratulate the man on 'his' victory. So instead, Sirius printed his face in his mind. He was tall, though not as tall as Sirius was, and his muscles seemed too heavy for a mere motorracer. His face was thin, with overly defined cheek- and jaw-bones, his eyes greyish green and his hair was a dirty brown. He didn't look like the Vietnamese colleage's of his, being at least a head taller than them, and having a pale skin, indicating he wasn't in the country for that long yet. His clothes consisted of racing clothes in green and silver, making Sirius think of Slytherin, which didn't add much good to his thoughts of the man.

After inning his money, the Slytherin, as Sirius now thought of him, made his way outside, which many people had done already and Sirius did too, since he was still on a mission.

Once outside, he couldn't find the man anywhere, so Sirius made his way to his motor. It was then that he saw the Slytherin again. Turning on his motor, he rode towards the Slytherin, seeing nothing of the wolf-boy.

Suddenly, the Slytherin saw him and seemed to be shocked. Why, Sirius couldn't fathom. The Slytherin then took off on his motor.

For a split second, Sirius hesitated, but then took off too. 'To hell with the mission! That man is as good as the culprit as anyone!'

Many racers hastily jumped aside as the Slytherin and Sirius approached, cursing them as they passed. Finally, they were out of the mass of people and the Slytherin really took off, Sirius following as soon as he was out.

The race quickly took them to one of the many path's into the jungle and Sirius had to use all of his riding skills not to ride right into a tree or flip over because of a root. The Slytherin seemed to know where he was going, as he made his way through the maze of small paths with ease.

Sirius cursed the damn jungle many times, as he was losing ground slowly but steadily, while when they'd been on a normal road, Sirius was positive he could have gotten the bastard.

The Slytherin disappeared in the jungle and Sirius cursed once again, shutting off his motor to try and listen for the other, but only silence and the sounds of the jungle greeted him. A stream of hushed curses came from Sirius' mouth, before he started his motor again, and placing a Silencing Charm on it. Chances were the Slytherin had put a Silencing Charm on his motor too, but Sirius doubted it and started searching, only turning up with nothing hours later. He searched for an hour or two once it was light again too, but still nothing, so grudgingly, he gave up and rode away, towards the cottage he'd rented for the two weeks he was here. One week had already passed, and he didn't think he'd find anything in the following week.

Tired, angry and disappointed, Sirius arrived at his cottage that was a few miles away from the village he'd been the past night.

Parking and securing his motor, he went inside and stripped off his sweaty clothes, before letting himself fall onto his bed with just his boxers on. However tired he was, sleep didn't want to come and he was tossing and turning for quite a while, not being able to forget about the poor wolf-boy he felt a connection to.

Finally, somewhere in the afternoon, he fell asleep.

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Here's the first real chapter. From here on, the story line will truly begin. I hope you'll like it.

Please Review... And a HUGE thanks for everyone that did already!


	3. The Thief

Thanks so much for all my reviewers! I hope I won't disappoint you ;)

Anyway... on with the next chapter!

**Chapter 3: The Thief.**

It was dark when he woke up. Looking at his bedside clock that lighted up in the dark, he saw it was around midnight, so he'd slept an hour or nine. Knowing himself, he was sure something had woken him up, as he wouldn't have woken up out of himself at this hour. Straining his ears for any sound, he kept absolutely still...

There it was again!

It was the floor that creaked slightly... it didn't do that on it's own.

After a while, the person entered his bedroom, as Sirius now could hear the suppressed ragged breathing of a person. Slightly opening the eyes he'd closed when he'd started listening, he saw a dark shadow searching through his things. A thief!

Sirius waited untill the thief was moving again, he was moving towards his bedside table... good!... Sirius waited... five steps... three steps... two... one... NOW!

In one fluid motion, Sirius had the thief in his arms, not intend on letting go. The thief was surprisingly small though, no smaller than a child...

Slightly startled at the realization it was only a child, gave the thief a small chance of escape, which it took without hesitating. A quick kick at Sirius' shin was enough to escape and it took off... fast.

Growling, Sirius changed his form into his more natural one and chased after the little thief. He managed to tackle the small child at the door. It immediately started to try and wiggle away, but Sirius had no intention of letting go a second time, not even when he felt the swipe of sharp claws at his side.

With a growl and a curse, and a bit more wrestling, Sirius had the kid securely by the wrists and pulled the little thief towards his bedroom again. That was no easy feat to manage and silently, Sirius admired the kid that had this much strength already. Back at his bedside table, he picked up his wand and used charms to tie the ankles and wrists of the kid together then lighted a few lamps so the room was baded with light.

If one would have looked into the room now, they probably would have though to be in either a movie-scene or gotten crazy. For you didn't see a jaguar-like man and a wolf/cat-like boy staring at eachother every day.

In shock, Sirius looked at his capture, while a look of shock adorned the boy's face too, though for different reasons. Sirius was shocked that the one he'd tried to help the night before, had been caught by him now. While the wolf-boy was shocked to find not a man, but a black jaguar-man in front of him.

"How are your wounds?" Sirius asked, not only to his, but also to the boy's astonishment. 'Why am I asking this? He just tried to steal from me!' Nonetheless, Sirius waited for an answer, not knowing why he expected the boy to understand English.

"W – What?"

'Guess he does know English...' "How is your chest? How are your wounds? I saw you fighting yesterday night."

"F – fine... Sir."

"Are you sure? Your breathing is rather ragged..."

"Why are you asking me this? Aren't you going to alert the police?"

"Police...? Oh, right, those Muggle law-enforcers... No I'm not going to alert them. But I do like to know your name. I'm Sirius, by the way."

It was silent for quite some time, Sirius even surprised himself with his patience.

"I'm not sure..."

"Don't worry, you can tell me."

"No, I mean I'm not sure what my name is..." The boy said trailing off at the end.

Again, silence...

"You're not – Then what does that man you were with call you?"

"M – Master? He calls me 'mutt', I guess, or 'the Wolf-boy' when he's talking to others..."

'I need to have a little conversation with this 'Master'...' Sirius thought.

"Please let me go Sir!" The boy then pleaded. "M – Master will kill me if he found out I talked to you!"

'Oh yeah! I _definately_ need to talk to Slytherin-guy!' "Do you _want_ to go back to him?"

For the third time, silence reighned. The boy was looking bewildered, his eyes darting all over the place, finally settling on Sirius again.

"I – He's my Master! Where would I go?"

"You could stay with me..."

It was silent for quite some time... again.

"Why are you doing this? Why don't you call the police or hit me like the others? Why are you so nice?" The boy asked desperately, trying to find a semblance of anything familiar.

"Because I – feel like I know you, kid. Why don't you tell me who your... Master is and I'll talk to him about it."

"T – Talk? No! I can't! He'll kill me! Please, just let me go!"

"No-one will kill you as long as I'm around, kid." 'And if the guy tries I'll kill him!' "Tell me, do you know you can turn into a human-form, kid?"

"I – I can? How?"

"With a lot of practice, you can do it yourself, I could help you with that, but there's also a spell... you do know about magic, right?"

The boy nodded.

"Say, how long have you been like this... like a wolf-cat?"

"Not sure... since I was five... I think..."

"Have you always been with your 'Master'?"

"Um, no... he took me from my Aunt and Uncle a few weeks after I had changed... but why are you asking all this?"

"I'm sorry, I must seem really inquisitive... the thing is... I'll be honest with you, alright? I've got the feeling I know you, and I'd like to take care of you, unless you want to stay with your 'Master' that is. But you give me the feeling that you don't really like it with your 'Master'."

The boy bowed his head, which was enough for Sirius.

"So you'd let me take care of you?"

"I – I don't know... I really like you, I think, though I'm not sure... I think I want to..."

"I promise I won't disappoint you. But in order to take care of you, I need to talk to your 'Master'. Or I could go to court and try to fight for you. And seeing as you don't seem to fond of the man, I think it's best not to send you back to him. Though there might be another way... if you're certain he's never seen you as a total human, I could make you change back and he wouldn't recognize you. So what do you say?"

"I – " The boy stopped abruptly, his ears pricking up, his nose sniffing the air. "Oh no! He's coming! He's gotten impatient!"

Sirius smelled the air too, and could smell the prescence of another man, though the smell nearly made him cough.

Quickly stuffing all his belongings in a bag, and hastily putting on some pants, Sirius said: "I'll try talking first, alright? But if he won't listen, we'll run and after we've lost him, I'll change you back and he won't know where to look, allright?"

"O – Okay..." The boy stuttered, seemingly bewildered at what was happening.

Glad he'd managed to get the boy's trust to a certain level, Sirius swang his backpack, which held all his shrunken stuff, on his back, then muttered the counter-spells for the boy's binds, before taking him by the hand, his wand in the other hand. He extinguished the light and let his eyes get accustomed to the dark.

Leading the boy to the living-room, where the man was, Sirius kept alert.

As soon as the man saw two silhouettes in the dark, the little one with his hand in the other's, the man barked: "Get back here you ungratefull mutt!"

The boy tensed, Sirius could feel, and his sensitive ears picked up the almost inaudible whimper.

Sirius squeezed the boy's hand assuringly, before growling, then saying: "Watch what you're saying to my son!" He then lighted a few lamps so the man could see them properly.

It had the desired effect, as the man was properly shocked at the appearance of a large jaguar-man, who currently had his lethal teeth bared.

Surprisingly fast, though, the man was over his shock.

"Dragondung! The wolf-boy's mine! I payed enough for him!"

Now Sirius was seriously mad. He _payed_ for a boy, like he was an animal or something! "You did what! I should kill you right here!" Sirius took a step forward.

The man, however, suddenly pointed a wand at the two.

Sirius reacted like lightning. He could probably defeat the man, but he had the boy to think of too, so he extinguished the light, jumping him and the boy aside as he did so. A jet of purple light striking the wall behind where they had previously stood. The wooden wall caught fire almost immediately. But Sirius didn't hang around to watch it spread, as he picked the surprisingly light boy up and ran towards the window. Just before he jumped through, he blasted the window away with his wand and a second later was outside, hearing the curses being shouted behind him, both magical as Muggle.

In another few seconds, Sirius was with his motor, just as the man exited the burning cottage. Ducking another curse and shooting one of his own, Sirius started the bike while mounting it.

"Hang on kid!" Sirius said and he felt the lithe, yet strong, arms tightening around his chest, the small form pressing against his chest.

Ducking low over his motor, Sirius shot off, zigzagging to avoid the jets of light, protecting the small body of his new charge with his own.

The jets of lights seazed to come, but Sirius raced on nonetheless, which was a good thing, as soon the sound of a second motor could be heard behind them.

Trusting the speed of his bike, Sirius was glad he wasn't in the middle of a city, as he didn't want to endanger, or alert, anyone. He could hear he was slowly gaining ground, and he didn't even fight the urge to grin. The were now racing along the edge of yet another jungle, when...

Splutter

'Oh, shit!'

Looking at the meter that told how much fuel he had left, he cursed again, loudly... The most they had left was a minute or three...

Taking the only option he saw, he yelled: "Hang on, kid! It's gonna be bumpy!" before stearing right into the jungle.

They didn't even last the little bit of fuel that was still left as a particularly high root stumped the motor, and the two of them went flying off. Instinctly, Sirius curled his body around the smaller one that was still pressed against his chest.

With a thud, he felt a sharp pain in his back, before all went black...

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Hope you all liked it... And please do this author a favour and leave a review... 


	4. Death in the Jungle

Here I am again. And about the cliffy... it just had to be there, it was out of my hands... really!

First, the answers to questions in reviews:

The Horns Hold The Halo Up: Sorry for the cliffy, and no, I have no intention of being involved in your premature death 

Baranwyn: Thanks, and you'll get to know the real identity of the wolf-boy this chapter.

JuMiKu: His wolf-form has nothing to do with outsiders. Though what he is exactly will be explained in a later chapter.

sami1010220: You'll get to know his identity this chapter.

As to the rest, **thanks for reviewing**

Also, a **warning** for this chapter. There is a rather gruesome death, so if you don't like to read that, skip the parts between ''s in italics. And there a bit of abuse either, though not much.

Now, the chapter:

**Chapter 4: Death in the Jungle.**

_With a thud, he felt a sharp pain in his back, before all went black..._

When he returned to consciousness, Sirius felt small arms tightening their hold on his chest, before the weight was suddenly gone. Struggling to regain his bearings, as he was sure there was something important going on, he heard a muffled cry of pain.

Something was wrong... but what was it?

Another cry of pain, this time not muffled whatsoever, it returned to him with a snap... The boy!

Opening his eyes, Sirius saw Slytherin-guy, but more importantly, saw the small bundle of child he had in his grasp. Rage pounded through his ears as the whip was brought down on the furred back of the boy, enciting another cry.

With an inhuman growl, he made to launch himself at the brute, not paying attention to his protesting back that had come in contact with the large trunk of a tree. But from a different direction an even louder growl came, before a huge tiger jumped at them, taking a swipe at the boy, but tumbling over him at the speed. Sirius figured it was just a young tiger with not too much experience.

In a second, jaguar-like Sirius was gone, being replaced by a fully grown black jaguar. He jumped over the boy to stand protectively between him and the tiger. The tiger hesitated, seeing the predator in front of him, and Sirius nudged his head at the boy, who got the gist and fled to a tree, which he easily climbed into with his sharp nails.

By now the tiger was over his initial shock and swiped at Sirius, who managed to avoid the sharp claws and instead swiped at the huge paw. The tiger hissed and pulled his bleeding paw back, which gave Sirius enough time to retreat to the tree too.

Sirius returned from full jaguar to jaguar-man in the tree, grabbing for his wand to stun the tiger, who was now advancing on Slytherin-guy, who seemed rooted to the spot. Sirius then saw his own wand, laying on the ground a few feet from the tree he and the boy were in.

"Run! You idiot! RUN!" He yelled at Slytherin-guy. Finally, the Slytherin-guy moved, jumping towards his motorcycle, where Sirius could see the abandoned wand of the man, but the tiger was faster and with a massive swipe of his claws, a loud crack was heard as the man's neck broke and he slumped to the ground.

_Turning his head away, Sirius knew all hope was lost for the guy... he was dead. So he tried to shut the sounds of an eating tiger out and concentrated on the boy that was on the same branch he was on._

"You allright?" Sirius asked.

"Fine..." The boy said, taking his wide eyes away from the gruelling sight below them.

"Come... let me have a look at that leg of yours." Sirius said.

Almost reluctantly, the wolf-boy moved towards Sirius, who moved a bit so he could take a proper look at the kid's leg. It wasn't a pretty wound... three deep ragged cuts went from a bit above the boy's knee, over his thigh, to just below his waistline.

"That'll have to be bound kid, as it doesn't look like we're going anywhere anytime soon. I'm no star at all the medical stuff... in fact, I don't know any healing spells besides a Quick-Heal I learned at Auror-training, but even if I had my wand, that spell wouldn't benefit you at all. So I'll have to find something to bandage that."

Looking around, Sirius saw his bag, like his wand, was out of his reach. The only thing suitable as a bandage were his pants, as neither he nor the boy wore shirts, and the boy's short shorts were hanging by threads. Sirius' pants were torn too, tribute to the transformation in which he didn't have the concentration to transfigure his pants along with his body, but at least his pants were long. Ripping the legs of his pants off, with which his claws helped greatly, he tore them in long strips.

Using the strips, he bandaged the gaping wound as best as he could, which wasn't that good, but it would have to do for now.

Looking down, he saw the tiger was now prowling around the tree, _seemingly finished with Slytherin-guy's corpse._ Once in a while he would put his front paws on the trunk and hiss when he couldn't reach the pair. _The tiger must have been very hungry to still be hungry after... best not think of that..._

Turning back to the boy, he saw a very tired, very scared-looking kid.

"C'mere, kid, you should sleep." Sirius said, motioning for the boy to come into his lap, so he wouldn't fall out of the tree when he slept. "I'll keep watch."

Again hesitantly, the boy moved towards Sirius. With surprising ease, considering his wounded leg... then again, maybe not so surprising, considering the fight Sirius'd seen and the wounds that could be inflicted.

Gently, Sirius wrapped his arms around the lithe frame of the boy, careful not to touch the welts that were still on his back from the whip. Sirius could feel the kid stiffen, then slowly relax and become more comfortable in the embrace, wrapping his own arms around Sirius' chest again.

The ripping of cloth then was heard from the foot of the tree. Sirius looked down and saw his backpack being ripped apart.

"Sorry..." The boy said, barely audible.

"About what?"

"About making you come here and having your stuff torn..."

"Don't worry about my stuff kid. They were just clothes and an old broomstick. And besides, you didn't make me come here. I did that all by myself... Sorry about your 'Master..."

Startled, the boy looked up, then settled his head back into Sirius' chest.

"He wasn't very nice to me..."

'Understatement of the Century.' Sirius thought, but didn't comment on it.

"... but I didn't want him to die... and really not like this..."

It was silent for a while, but just as Sirius thought the kid was finally asleep, he started talking again.

"Shouldn't I be sad? I mean... My parents died when I was little in a car-crash... and I sometimes feel sad about that, and sometimes I feel mad at them for leaving me... even though that's stupid... but Master... I don't feel anything... I'm almost... releaved... is that bad?"

For a moment, Sirius thought of what he should say.

"No, kid, that's not bad. I think it's normal, though I'm no expert at this. The guy you call 'Master' was nothing like what a parent should be, and frankly doesn't deserve your loyalty or anything else from you." Sirius bit his lip to stop himself from saying in no uncertain terms what he thought of the Slytherin-bastard...

Ten minutes later, the wolf-boy was fast asleep, the steady rise and fall of his chest indicating it was a quiet sleep, even though the breathing was still somewhat ragged. He have to check out the chestwound too, as it might be possible that the sword had injured more than just flesh.

/\\/\

The sun finally came up, though the tiger still was planted at the foot of the tree. Only when the sun was high enough to really start to heat up the world, did the tiger walk off, though regretfully looking back at the two black figures sitting as one in the tree.

Sirius waited another hour to make sure the tiger was really gone, before waking up the boy.

"Hey kid, sleep well?"

He got a nod in response.

"The tiger's gone, so we can get out of here."

Another nod.

"Wait here for a moment." Sirius said, and the boy shifted so he was sitting on the branch and Sirius was free to move.

Sirius jumped down, landing in a crouch, and carefully looked and sniffed around after getting his wand. The scent of the tiger still hung in the air, but he didn't seem around anymore. He turned to the waiting boy in the tree.

"Jump, I'll catch you."

"I can land on my own." Came the reply.

Smiling at the boy's concealed stubbornness, Sirius said: "I'm sure you can, but I don't think it would be that good to the wounds on your leg and chest."

A barely imperceptible nod before the boy jumped down and Sirius caught him expertly under the armpits.

Sitting him down on a root, Sirius said: "First things first. Do you want me to change you to human now?"

Another nod.

'He sure isn't very talkative.' Sirius thought, before muttering a spell and the boy started changing. His fur disappeared, his finger's became shorter and thinner, as did his toes and feet. The rest of his body also shortened, untill a small boy sat in front of him, with long black hair and rather vivid old bruises and welts on his back, chest and arms, looking at the smooth white skin of his hands in slight wonder.

He then looked up and the breath caught in Sirius' throat.

The boy looked slightly scared. "What's wrong?"

"It's true! It's really you!"

"You – you know me?"

Sirius could only nod. Taking deep calming breath's he said: "Yes. I've been looking for you for years, but never did manage to find you. Your name is Harry. Harry James Potter. I'm your Godfather."

Silence reigned at these words, untill a small children's voice broke the quiet.

"Really?" The voice was laced with so much hope and concealed happiness, that Sirius couldn't keep away the smile.

"Really."

The beaming smile that got onto his Godson's face was enough to make Sirius laugh and he was delighted to hear Harry join him.

"Come on." Sirius said after he'd stopped laughing. "Let's get out of here before we attract every creature in this jungle. But first let's see what's left of my stuff."

Sorting through his stuff, he found one long coat made out of green dragon-leather that only had a gash in the right sleeve and he also found a fairly unbattered pair of pants. The rest of his stuff was torn beyond recognition. Not even a Repairing Charm would work on those anymore.

He handed the leather jacket to Harry to put on, and pulled on the black dragon-leather pants himself, after discarding the torn pants he'd worn.

He turned his attention to his own motor that laid against the root that had become their fall the day before. Gazing towards Slytherin's bike, he made a decision. The guy wouldn't ever need his fuel anymore, so they might as well use it.

Repairing eventual damages to his own motor, he then filled his motor's engine with enough fuel of the other's one to get him to his, probably burned down, cottage. By use of, what else, magic. After finishing with that, he shrunk his motor and put it in his pocket.

Looking over at Harry, he grinned, as the boy looked ridiculous in the overly large coat.

"Let's go." Sirius said, picking up the protesting boy. "I'm not going to let you walk with that leg of yours. Not before a certified Healer has had a good look at it."

Harry then stayed quiet as Sirius carried him to the road, where he put him down on another root for a moment to unshrink his motor and then put the boy on it, sitting down behind Harry and they started towards the cottage.

When they arrived there, firemen and the police were surrounding the smoldering ruins.

As they approached, one of the policemen turned to Sirius and asked a question.

"I'm really sorry, but I only speak English." Sirius said.

"He asked if we lived here." Harry said.

"Oh. Well, tell him that I'd rented the place for two weeks."

Nodding, Harry translated it to the officer. The officer nodded and then asked something again.

"He askes if you know what happened here."

"Just say you were here with me last night when whatever-his-name-is came in and tried to attack us and we fled as he'd set fire to the place."

Harry translated again.

(AN: from now on I'm not going to say everytime that Harry translates. He just does. And Harry's told the officer the name of his 'Master': Mr. Snipe.)

"Where is Mr. Snipe now?" The officer asked.

"After we fled, we ended up in the jungle. There we were all attacked by a tiger. Harry and I managed to flee into a tree, but Mr. Snipe was killed. We couldn't do anything. Only this morning did the tiger leave so we could get out of the tree." Sirius said. "And as Harry was injured last night too, I'd like to take him to a doctor. All I need is the fuel I'd burried."

"Burried?"

"Yes. I didn't like the idea of being blown up by accident. By the way, is there anything saved from the fire?"

"No, nothing but burned wood and molten metal. Allright. I do might have some more questions, so..."

"If you have some paper and a pen, I'll write the adress down of a person that's sure to be able to contact me."

Nodding, the officer handed him the requested, and he wrote down the adress of the one that had asked Dumbledore for help. He made a mental note to tell the man about this soon.

Finally having refilled his motor, Sirius and Harry left the ruins of the cottage. They drove very calmly, as neither had helmets (Sirius' one had melted in the fire), and neither was exactly well-dressed either.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked once they were driving again.

"Scotland. That's where my, our, home is. From there, I'll contact a Healer. Or better yet, we can go to Hogwarts..."

They drove on in confortable silence, untill they reached a house in the middle of a city. Sirius drove right into the walled off back-garden, where he shrunk his motor again after picking up Harry.

He knocked on the back-door that was swung open a minute later by a gentle Vietnamese man.

After seeing the child in Sirius' arms, he said: "What happened, Mr. Black?" while moving aside to let them enter.

"By accident, I've found my Godson that's been missing for four years. But he needs to see a Healer, so I wondered if I could use your fireplace to contact Dumbledore?"

"Of course! You can put your Godson on the couch. But have you found out anything about the racers yet?"

"Yes, but it's not promosing." Sirius said, placing Harry on a low couch. "Practically all of the racers I've seen are wizards and witches, so finding the sabotager will be like looking for a needle in a haystack."

"What's a sabotager?" Harry asked.

"It's a person that breaks other people's things to make sure he wins a race or a fight or something like that."

"Oh... Mas – "

"Call him Snipe, Harry, he's not your Master anymore, nor has he been in the past."

"O – Okay, well, M – Snipe always used to do a spell on other people's motors so he would win. Is that the same thing?"

"It sure is, kid. And that finishes the problem, as Snipe is no more. But now I'm going to contact Dumbledore allright?"

Harry nodded.

Sirius then stuck his head into the flames, after throwing in some Floo Powder, calling for Hogwarts.

After his head stopped spinning, Sirius could see the lower part of the Headmaster's office.

"Professor?" He called. "Professor Dumbledore...? Albus!"

Finally, robes neared, then the person wearing them crouched down and Sirius could see the twinkling light blue eyes of the Headmaster.

"Good afternoon, Sirius. Any news?"

"Yes, double good news. But I'll tell you about it when I get back. I need the Portkey, and tell Poppy to prepare for a patient."

"A patient?"

"Yes. But again, I'll tell you when I'm back. It's nothing life-threatening, at least, I should hope not, but he definately needs medical attention. Now could you give me the Portkey?"

"Of course, my boy." The Headmaster stood up and walked away, then came back with a paperweight.

"You know the password, am I right?"

"Of course."

The wize Headmaster then nodded and used his wand to float the paperweight so Sirius could grab it in his mouth. "I'll await your arrival. And I have a surprise for you when you're here."

Sirius nodded his agreement, then pulled his head back, silently wondering what surprise Albus could have for him.

"What did you do?" Harry asked.

Sirius took the paperweight from his mouth. "You never saw anyone use Floo Powder before?"

Harry shook his head.

"Floo Powder is used to travel from fireplace to fireplace. You can also talk to someone via the fireplace if you just stuck your head into it. That's what I did. I got us a Portkey, as you can't use Floo Powder to get from one country to another. You need a special Portkey to do that without getting into any trouble. And a Portkey is an object that is enchanted to make one or more persons travel from one place to another in a matter of seconds."

"Oh..." Harry said, letting the information sink in.

"We'll be going now, Mr. Sayuki, it's nice having met you." Sirius said, shaking hands with the considerably smaller man.

"It's the same for me. Maybe we'll see eachother again."

"Maybe." Sirius picked up Harry again. "Now, Harry, all you need to do is touch this paperweight. One finger is enough. Bye Mr. Sayuki."

"Bye Mr. Black, Harry."

"Bye." Harry said, before Sirius tapped the paperweight, saying: "Padfoot."

They were whisked away in a swirl of colours.

/\\/\

That's it for now. The next chapter will either be in one or in two weeks. Hope you enjoyed it... And please leave this nice author a review?


	5. New Beginnings

I made it in time! Wow! Okay, enough of that...

The reviews:

**Maya100:** They did question the Dursleys, at least, Dumbledore did, but the Dursleys had no idea who they'd sold Harry to, so they couldn't tell either. Which made searching for Harry quite a bit harder. And about the fact Harry was part wolf/cat, the Dursleys didn't bring it up, and Dumbledore had no reason to think of something like that, so that made the search even harder, as they were searching for a human Harry.  
As to why Sirius didn't know about the Dursleys selling Harry... if you were Dumbledore, would you tell Sirius?  
Lastly, there will be almost certainly no Dursley-scene, even though Sirius'd love to pay them a 'visit'. But Sirius is too busy with Harry and other... things.

**Erik2:** Thanks, I really like Sirius-as-dad-stories, so that's why my stories are mostly like that.

**The Horns Hold The Halo Up:** I really wish I could have had time for that :(

**sami1010220:** It isn't a what... it's a who... you'll see ;)

**Kitsune Foxfire:** I know, but it near impossible to make sure it isn't...

And **thanks so much** for the rest!

**Chapter 5: New Beginnings**

Seconds later, they landed in the fairly large office of Professor Dumbledore. Being prepared for the landing, Sirius planted his feet firmly on the ground to keep from falling, at the same time steadying Harry.

"Hello again, Sirius, and... is that right... young Mr. Potter?"

"Yes. Harry, this is Professor Albus Dumbledore. He's the Headmaster of Hogwarts, the school you'll be going to in a few years to learn magic."

"Hi..." Harry said shyly.

"Hello, Mr. Potter."

"But like I said before, I'll explain later." Sirius continued. "Is Poppy in the Hospital Wing?"

"Yes, yes, I've sent Fawkes to alert her. Let me accompany you there."

Professor Dumbledore led the way down a whirling staircase, out into a hallway. There, Sirius took a quick pace towards the Hospital Wing, carrying Harry in his arms.

Once there, Sirius was met with the nurse he'd come to know as Poppy Pomfrey. A good woman, but strict when it came to her patients.

"Put him down here, Sirius."

Sirius complied as he put Harry, who'd fallen surprisingly asleep on the way to the Hospital Wing, on one of the beds.

Madam Pomfrey looked her patient over.

"Oh my, he is not...?"

"Yes, Madam, his name is Harry Potter." Sirius said.

She got over her shock surprisingly quickly, turning into full nursing-mode.

"What happened to him?" She asked, as she examined him.

"The wound on his leg is from a tiger, the older wound on his chest from a short Japanese sword when he was forced to fight in a cage-fight. The fairly new welts on his back are from a whip... as to the older bruises and welts, I can only imagine..." He ended grimly.

Before working on, Madam Pomfrey shooed the two men out of the Hospital Wing, though only managed to get Sirius out after promising to alert him if Harry woke up.

Standing in the hallway just outside the Hospital Wing (Sirius refused to go any further), Dumbledore said: "I think now would be an appropriate time to tell about the happenings in Vietnam."

Dumbledore conjured two cushy armchairs and they sat down on them.

"Well, about the mission. Nothing really came up, untill a few days ago. I was in a biker-bar in some village, when they all went outside..." Sirius started telling the story. Only leaving out some unimportant things. "...and we made our way to Mr. Sayuki, where Harry told me Snipe used to sabotage the motorcycle's."

"That's quite an interesting story..." Dumbledore said. "... and I think I owe you an apology for not thinking my plan of sending the boy to the Dursley's could go wrong like this."

Sirius nodded, grinding his teeth to keep from shouting. 'What's done is done.' He reminded himself. 'The only ones to blame are Snipe and the Dursley's.'

Before Sirius could think further on what he'd like to do to the Dursley's, Madam Pomfrey came into the hall to let them inside.

Sirius instantly was at Harry's side, happy to note the bruises and welts at least were gone, as was the wound that had been on Harry's thigh. The gash on his chest though was still a strange shade of purple and green.

"What...?" Sirius asked, looking up at the nurse, only to see her concerned look.

"The chest-wound, it's really harsh... whoever applied it ment to seriously harm Harry, as a poison I've yet to identify was on the sword and now in the boy's body."

"What does it do?"

"That's the problem. I've never seen it before. I'll keep on searching of course, but as of now, I only know it's affecting his lungs, for now."

"I'll ask Severus to have a look at it too." Dumbledore said. "His knowledge on potions is quite extended."

"There's more isn't there..." Sirius said more than asked.

"I'm afraid so. It concerns his right hand. It has several dislocated joints. It's impossible to come near them though, even in his sleep."

Sirius raised his eyebrow. He'd never heard the nurse say something's impossible.

"Impossible how?" Dumbledore asked.

"He's somehow got an impenetrable magical forcefield around it."

"I do?" Came a small voice from the bed.

"Hello, sleepyhead." Sirius greeted.

"Um... hi."

"How come you never told me your hand was hurt?" Sirius asked gently.

Harry shrugged. "It's not too bad... it'll heal on it's own."

"I'm afraid that's not the case." Madam Pomfrey said. "If we don't relocate your joints, it may be very well possible you won't be able to properly use it anymore."

"Could we see it, Harry?" Sirius asked, shooting daggers at the nurse with his eyes.

Harry looked from one to another with uncertain eyes.

"We won't do anything you don't want us to do..." Sirius said.

Reluctantly, Harry removed his left hand from their place around his right and lifted his injured hand so they could see it. And indeed, several joints looked to be in places they weren't supposed to be.

"It hurts to move them." Harry stated.

"We'll give you a painkiller so you won't feel a thing." Sirius said.

"It won't work." Harry said softly, but firmly.

The three adults looked at him inquisitively and he shrank a bit under their gaze.

"Why not, Harry?" Dumbledore asked.

"Um... Snipe... he always punished me when I didn't do something right... and he broke my ribb once so he had to take me to a doctor or it would puncture my lung or something... he made me drink this potion... he said I deserved the pain and I didn't deserve a painkiller... and they never worked." Harry finished his quiet story.

"Isn't there an antidote against that potion?" Sirius asked.

"No. There's only one potion that could do this, it's illegal and that's a good thing, since it can work for years and when it finally starts wearing off, it'll come back once in a while." Madam Pomfrey said with apparant disgust on her face. "An antidote has yet to be found."

"So now what?"

It was quiet after Sirius' question.

"Just do it. I'll live." Harry said, stunning the adults with his steady, mature, tone.

"Are you sure, Harry?" Dumbledore asked.

Harry nodded, biting his lip.

"But please let Sirius stay?"

Madam Pomfrey nodded.

"I'll go get Severus now." Dumbledore said. "And I'll contact Remus and the Ministry too."

"The Ministry!" Sirius exclaimed, though lowered his voice as he saw Harry flinch under the tone. "Why?"

"Because they have to renounce Harry's missing status."

"Fine. But I'm going to be his guardian. I won't let you take him to the Dursley's again!"

Dumbledore nodded before leaving.

"So I'll really be staying with you now?"

"Yes. If you want to."

"I'd like that."

Madam Pomfrey came out of her office with a goblet of some smoky substance in it.

"This is a potion that will make sure your joints will get to the right spot when we move them. And it'll heal them after that." She said handing it to Harry.

Nervously, the little boy swallowed it.

"Ready?" Madam Pomfrey asked him, as Sirius put a reassuring arm around the boy's shoulders. Harry stiffened again at the contact, but not for long. He nodded, biting his lip again.

Madam Pomfrey put her wand in her apron, taking Harry's hand in one hand and his indexfinger in the other.

Sirius could feel Harry stiffening.

Then, a quick motion of Madam Pomfrey and a slight crack and Harry cried out in pain, instinctly pulling back his hand and cradling it against his chest. Trembling, he'd pressed his frame against Sirius' chest, tears threatening to spill from his eyes.

Without question, Sirius moved onto the bed behind the boy holding him and rubbing his shoulders soothingly.

"It's allright. It'll be done real soon. You just need to be brave a little while longer..." Sirius soothed. "Only two more..."

It took Harry a few minutes more to build up his courage and again extending his hand, although trembling like a leaf. Sirius tried to give the boy as much comfort as he could, but it had to be done.

Another soft crack and the middle finger was relocated. Harry only whimpered and closed his eyes. The last crack and it was done, leaving a trembling and sobbing boy in Sirius' arms.

"Brave child." Madam Pomfrey murmured, then turned to Sirius, who was soothing Harry.

"Now, Mr. Black, about your back..."

Untill now, Sirius had just ignored his back that had flared in pain quite a few times. He hadn't had any time to think about it though, as he'd been far more concerned for Harry's health.

Madam Pomfrey started prodding and after she touched a certain spot right between two ribbs, he hissed at the unexpected pain.

Madam Pomfrey tutted disapprovingly. "Two bruised ribbs and some milder bruises here and there." She then muttered a few spells and Sirius felt tingling all along his back. The nurse then bustled away before returning with a jar full of an indigo coloured ointment. She went behind Sirius' still bare back and he nearly jolted towards the ceiling when a cold substance hit his back.

Harry whimpered slightly at the sudden movement, but stayed silent further.

"Don't worry, kid. I just startled, is all."

"You're all done here, Mr. Black, though you'll need to pick up some more ointment this evening, for your back. Oh, and Professor Dumbledore requests you go up to his office, the password is 'Ice mice'." With that, she disappeared in her office.

Harry's sniffling had stopped by now and he looked up at Sirius with big, apologizing eyes. "Sorry..."

"What for?"

"Being so weak..."

"Harry..." Sirius said sincerely, looking him straight in the eyes. "Your the strongest boy I know. And you don't have to apologize for things like that, 'kay?"

"Okay..."

Then, after looking them over, Sirius said:

"I think I need to visit Don Rhona as I'm not wearing that much... and we'll have to go shopping for some clothes for you, as you definately don't have my size." Sirius grinned. "Unless you have some clothes at Snipe's place?"

Harry shook his head. "No, just my – oh! Hold on." He then squeezed his eyes shut in concentration.

Curiously, Sirius looked on and then his eyebrows rose as out of thin air, a Katana, two Wakazashi's and a medium-sized dagger appeared, all black with green symbols. Harry opened his eyes again and grabbed the weapons, putting the weapons, along with the adjoining sheets and belts, on the small table besides his bed.

Seeing the confused look on Sirius' face, Harry elaborated: "I don't know why, but somehow if I concentrate hard enough, they just come to me."

"Wicked!" Sirius said, not caring how immature that sounded. He never did say he _was_ mature!

"Never quite grown up, have you Black?"

The man and boy on the bed looked up simultaneously to look at the black-dressed man with the hooked nose who'd commented.

"Good afternoon to you too, _Professor_ Snape!" Sirius replied, sarcasm quite plain with the title.

"The Headmaster is waiting for you in his office, so you might want to hurry up with all the mushy stuff and get moving." Without a further word, Snape vanished into Madam Pomfrey's office.

"Bastard." Sirius said, looking at the closed door.

"Who was that?" Harry asked.

"Severus Snape." Sirius said with distaste. "He teaches Potions here, and he was in the same year as I was back in school. Your Dad and I called him Snivellus. Slimy idiot."

"You don't like him." Harry stated.

"You could say that." Sirius said. "But I'm afraid I have to go see Professor Dumbledore."

"I'll be fine, Sirius." Harry answered the unasked question.

"I'll try to hurry." Sirius said, before leaving the Hospital Wing.

The treck to the Headmaster's office was short and uneventfull and after telling the gargoyle the password, he let himself be taken up to the office. To get the shock of a lifetime as he opened the door.

There, sitting in an armchair in front of the Headmaster was a woman with platinum-blonde hair, her amber eyes complementing it, it suited her quite well. Her blue and silver robes combining to her beauty quite nicely.

"Ah, Sirius, excellent timing. I don't think I need to introduce the two of you? She's been back for a few days now."

Different emotions flashed over Sirius' face in rapid succession, finally settling on a blank stare.

"No, introductions won't be nescessary." He said.

"I'll leave the two of you in private for a while, then." Professor Dumbledore said, before exiting to his private chambers.

"Hi, Sirius." The woman said.

"Hello Elisabeth." Sirius replied coolly.

"You look good ." Elisabeth said. "The years have done you well."

"Yes. They have." Sirius replied, still emotionless.

Elisabeth narrowed her eyes slightly, her jaws clenching. "How have you been?"

"Fine." Sirius knew he was putting Elisabeth on the edge.

"Damnit Sirius!" Elisabeth yelled, her cheeks turning red in anger. "We haven't seen eachother in years and all you can say is 'fine'!"

"What will you have me say, Elisabeth! 'Oh, hi Elisabeth! Don't worry about leaving for _over nine years_, without thinking for _one second! _I'm doing quite good, how was the weather in Italy?' "

"Is that what you think! You though it was a one-minute decision! I'd just gotten out of school Sirius! I had my own life to think of! I got a once-in-a-lifetime job opportunity and I wasn't going to waste it on a relationship that hadn't even properly started yet!"

"And what about the rest! What about Remus, James and Lily! What about Harry! You didn't once visit him! Even when James and Lily died!"

"Do you think it was easy for me! Hearing from Remy about Harry's birth, while I couldn't be there for it! Hearing from him that Lily and James died! Hearing Harry was missing! I wanted to be there, damnit! But I couldn't! I had someone to protect that I loved more than life itself!"

"OH! FOUND YOURSELF A GUY DID YOU!"

Somewhere during their fight, Elisabeth had gotten up, making them stand only inches apart.

"NO! I – "

"THEN WHO WERE YOU PROTECTING! IT COULDN'T HAVE BEEN ANY OF US, FOR THAT DIDN'T REALLY WORK OUT NOW DID IT!"

"WILL YOU LET ME FINISH! I WAS TALKING ABOUT MY CHILD, SIRIUS! OUR SON!"

"Wh – What!" Sirius spluttered, his anger diverted for a moment. "Why didn't you ever tell me! Why – When –"

"Well I tried writing to you, but you never answered. After that I got so angry that you didn't even respond, I tried pushing you out of my head and heart alltogether, though it never worked. And I made Remus promise not to tell you about Zach! I was so angry with you, Sirius!"

Sirius was still in shock. "When – How – "

Elisabeth tried holding her composure but failed miserably as she chuckled. "He was born July 31st, practically the same time as Harry did. And how – Well, I hope you know how baby's are born by yourself..."

Sirius blinked, not really processing the words, then was suddenly kissed full on the mouth. It didn't take him long to respond to _that_, though. Minutes later, they broke apart.

"I've acted really stupid, didn't I?" Sirius said.

"Yeah... But I forgive you."

"And I'll forgive you for leaving just like that." Sirius said. "But where is – Zach you say his name is?"

"Yes. He's still in Italy, with an acquaintance of mine, untill I've found a decent place to stay here."

"So you're in Great Britain to stay?"

"Yes."

"Good." He said, then kissed her briefly. "And allthough I'd love to see Zach, maybe it's for the better he's in Italy for now. As I'm rather having my hands full with an agemate of his. Which reminds me, I've got to get back to the Infirmary."

"I thought Harry was missing? And what's with the new way of dressing? Or non-dressing. Is it a new fashion-trend I missed? Not that I mind, mind you."

"No new fashion trend, let me assure you." Sirius grinned. "It's just that my other clothes have gotten torn up by a tiger and I haven't been able to get home to get other clothing yet. And Harry was indeed missing. The keyword being 'was'. I found him only a day ago, though stumbled across him is more like it, I guess."

"You did! That's great! How is he?"

"He's doing well, considering what he's been through."

Elisabeth eyed Sirius concernedly.

"What happened?"

"I'm positive he's been abused, though to what extend I'm not sure."

"Who'd do such a thing!"

"Some guy named Snipe. But he's dead now."

"Sirius...?"

"No, it wasn't me. I wouldn't have let him off so easily. The tiger ate him. Same tiger that tore up my clothes and hurt Harry. I'll tell you the full story later." He finished, as they arrived at the Infirmary. Elisabeth walked behind him, her eyes wide, mouthing 'Ate him?'.

"Hey, kid." Sirius greeted when he saw Harry was still awake. "Been bored?"

Harry shrugged, sitting up. "It was allright."

"Good. Harry, I'd like you to meet Elisabeth Lupin." Sirius said. "She's... ah..."

"I was good friends with Lily, your Mother, Harry, and I'd like to get to know you, if you don't mind?"

"Um, okay..."

Sirius ruffled Harry's hair, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

Harry winced slightly at the gesture, but then smiled his shy smile.

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\

Well, there you have it. I'm kind of proud of it, since I had to squeeze in writing between bouts of studying... This year is hell!

I really liked writing that fight (don't know why), and it turned out pretty nice I think.

Anyway, tell me what you think...


	6. Conventus Sanguinis Animaeque

A week went by, and Harry seemed to get used to his new environment, and the changes in his life. He was starting to relax, although not completely, and he started opening up to Sirius and Elisabeth, who did their best to lighten up the shy boy.

After two days, Madam Pomfrey had let him go from the Hospital Wing, since he wasn't really sick. It was just the poison that gave him trouble breathing sometimes, but nothing serious. She'd made both him and Sirius and Elisabeth promise that he returned immediately, should anything change, and also that he'd take things easy. She'd taken a small sample of his blood where she and Snape kept working on to determine the poison, though they didn't have any luck so far.

Harry stayed with Sirius and Elisabeth, who were slowly starting back their relationship, in some quarters somewhere on the second floor of the castle. Sirius'd said it would be easier for now if they stayed at Hogwarts, should anything happen. Besides, Madam Pomfrey still regularly checked on Harry's health. Sirius had briefly gone to his home to get some clothes, so he wouldn't constantly be wearing the same pants with nothing else. Sirius also had made a tailor come to Hogwarts to measure Harry and ordered some clothes and wizarding robes, as well as a pair of glasses, since now Harry wasn't half wolf/cat, his eyesight was all but abominable.

The day after Harry's arrival at Hogwarts, the papers had been full with the news that Harry Potter was back, along with speculation as to where he'd been. This had forced Sirius to tell Harry that he was famous because he'd managed to vanish the most feared Dark Lord in a century. Harry's only reaction had been why he could be famous for something he didn't even remember, but further, he paid it no heed.

After Harry'd been released from the Infirmary, Sirius'd started teaching Harry how to handle his wolf/cat-form, and change at will from human, to half, to full wolf/cat. Harry was making quick progress, as he had already practiced his concentration quite well with summoning his weapons and his fighting training.

/\\/\

What's on your mind, kid?" Sirius asked after one of their training sessions. "I can tell something's bothering you."

"I was just wondering why I'm an Animorphmagus, like you call it?" Harry said quietly. He still wasn't comfortable asking questions, though he required a lot less pushing from Sirius' and Elisabeth's part nowadays.

"Well, there really isn't a real answer for that." Sirius said. "Animorphmagi are quite rare and they just appear. You can't tell who's an Animorphmagus at birth and who isn't. Between five and eight years old, they just change suddenly. Though there are families that have several Animorphmagi in it, it isn't really something you can get through your parentage. By accident or not, both of your parents happened to be Animorphmagi, but neither of their parents or even known family were Animorphmagi. While in my family's past, quite a lot of Animorphmagi are known. It's quite a mystery really."

"And what about Elisabeth?" Harry asked.

"Lizzy... well, she was the very first in her family to show the trait, and in fact, they weren't too happy about it. Neither did mine, really."

"Why?"

"In the past, Animorphmagi were hunted quite badly, and nowadays, some people still think we shouldn't be allowed in society, that's why it's common for Animorphmagi to keep their abilities a secret, which was made a lot easier with the invention of the spell I used on you."

"So that's why you didn't tell the Ministry that I was one..."

"Yes. Unfortunately, too many people believe in prejudices."

"Does Remus believe in them?" Remus was a good friend of Sirius', and had been a good friend of Harry's Father too.

"Remus? Why would you think that?"

"Just because... well you said Elisabeth's family wasn't very happy about her..."

"That's because the Lupin's aren't Lizzy's original family."

"They aren't?"

"No. But when her family found out what she was, they abandoned her, and she was adopted by Remus' parents when no-one else would. They understood prejudices and hated them too."

"Because Remus is a Werewolf?"

"How do you know about that?" Sirius asked. "Who told you that?"

Harry turned a bit white at that and looked down at his hands.

"Um... I – I overheard you and Remus... you were talking about the full moon..."

"You know," Sirius said mock-sternly. "It's not nice to eavesdrop..."

"I'm sorry!" Harry blurted. "I couldn't help it! I tried not to, I swear!"

"Hey, hey," Sirius said gently, taking Harry by the shoulders to calm him down. "Don't worry about it, alright? I'm not mad at you."

"Um, okay."

"Now how about we – "

Suddenly the door was opened by Elisabeth.

"They've found it." She said.

"Found what?" Sirius asked.

"Found what! What do you think? The identity of the poison of course!"

"Let's hope there's an antidote for it." Sirius said worriedly.

They made their way towards the Hospital Wing, Sirius and Elisabeth anxious to know what was going to happen, while Harry was rather calm about it all. He'd been pretty stoic when he found out about the poison in his body in the first place.

In the Infirmary, Professor Dumbledore, Snape, Madam Pomfrey and also Professor McGonagall, who Harry'd come to know a bit too were present. And also Remus, who'd visited the castle regularly to get to know Harry. Remus also had a wife and twins, but never brought them along, not wanting to overwhelm Harry.

When they entered, Sirius was positive Snape was about to make one of his sniding comments, but he was stopped by Professor Dumbledore who'd often diverted any possible rows between Sirius and Snape.

"Ah, good of you to join us. Now please tell us, Severus, Poppy, what have you found?"

"It's taken quite a while, but Mr. Snape finally found the solution to our question." Madam Pomfrey said.

"Indeed, it belongs to one of the older potions that isn't regularly used any more. It's basically a poison used to kill animals in the hunt. Later it was tried to kill Animorphmagi with it, but since Animorphmagi aren't real animals, they didn't die. At least not instantly, and there was an easy cure for it." Snape explained.

"Good." Sirius said. "What is it?"

"If you'd let me finish, Black, I – "

"Severus, please..." Dumbledore intervened.

"The cure is, like I said, an easy one. However, with Mr. Potter, there's a bit of a problem. You see, the cure is a simple potion, but the prominent ingredients are some blood from the parents of the poisoned person. From the biological parents..."

Silence rang at those words.

"And there isn't a different cure? None at all?" Elisabeth asked.

"None that has been found." Snape said.

"Couldn't you try finding one?" Sirius asked.

Snape sneered. "I'll try, Black, but I wouldn't get your hopes up!"

Sirius exchanged a look with Elisabeth and she nodded.

"Come on, Harry. Let's get you into bed."

Harry looked between the adults, his eyes straying on Sirius.

"I'll be along shortly, kid." He said and Harry looked at him with those piercing eyes. Sirius knew then that Harry knew he was being led away so the adults could talk about him, but he refrained from commenting.

Once Harry and Elisabeth were gone and out of hearing distance (even for Harry's sharp ears), Sirius asked: "How – how long?" He couldn't help the slight wavering in his voice.

"A month, at most." Snape answered.

/\\/\

"A month..." Sirius said dully to Elisabeth. "A month, Liz. One, miserable, bloody month!"

Harry was changing into his pyjamas in his room when Sirius'd arrived at their quarters.

"Oh, Sirius..." Elisabeth said emotionally. "What are we going to do? He's still so young!"

"I'm not going to give up hope, Liz... As long as there's the tiniest chance he's going to survive, I won't lose hope!"

Elisabeth nodded her agreement. "There's got to be a way!" She said with conviction.

Five minutes later, Sirius was saying goodnight to his Godson.

" 'Night, kid." He said, ruffling his hair. "Sleep tight."

"Good night... Dad..." Harry said, before burrying himself in his blankets. The last word was so soft, Sirius wasn't even positive he'd heard it right, but it was enough to make a wide smile appear on the handsome face. Then, his head snapped up as a thought struck him. His smile widened even further and he stood up from the edge of the bed.

"Sleep well... son." He said, before leaving the room, diminishing the light untill it was practically extinguished.

Sitting down in their cosy living-room, he stared into the fire, trying to order his thoughts.

Elisabeth then snuggled next to him, having changed into her night- and dressing-gown.

"I've got an idea, Lizzy." He said, wrapping his arm around his lover's waist.

Immediately, he had Lizzy's amber eyes boring into his. "Tell me."

"It was Harry actually who made me think of it after calling me Dad..." He smiled again at the thought. "Though I'm not quite positive I didn't imagine it. But I got thinking. Couldn't we use the _Conventus Sanguinis Animaeque?_"

Elisabeth's eyes widened. "Brilliant, Sirius! Come on, I've just got to know!"

With that, she pulled him off the couch and pulled him through their entrance, that was situated behind a statue of a roaring lion. Sirius didn't need much encouragement, though, and the two ran through the castle at neck-breaking speed.

They reached the gargoyle heavily breathing, but Elisabeth nearly shouted the password nonetheless.

With only a chaste knock on the door, they entered the office where Dumbledore sat behind his desk, looking completely unsurprised.

"Professor, we've got an idea!" Sirius said with as much calm as he could muster.

"Oh?" The Headmaster prompted, raising an eyebrow to make him continue.

"What if Elisabeth and I use the _Conventus Sanguinis Animaeque_ with Harry?"

Dumbledore folded his fingers. "That might be possible. Why don't you sit down as I ask Severus to join us."

Sirius and Elisabeth complied as they sat down while Dumbledore did the opposite and walked over to his fireplace and threw in some powder, calling: "Severus, if you please?"

Only moments later, a spinning person appeared in the fireplace, before stepping out.

Glancing at the two others in the room (and sneering), Snape asked: "What is it, Professor?"

"Sirius came with quite an intruiging possibility, Severus. Why don't you sit down?"

"I'd rather stand, thank you." Severus said as Dumbledore sat down behind his desk again. "What is this possibility?"

"What if the _Conventus Sanguinis Animaeque_ would be used?"

"I'm not too sure it would work, Headmaster."

"It would make the boy the son of Sirius and Elisabeth, in both blood and soul."

"Indeed, but it would split the parentage of Potter to four persons."

"Yes, Lily and James would still be Harry's parents too, but I believe it is worth a shot. Wouldn't you say?"

"We could try it..."

"Good." Dumbledore said cheerfully. "How long will it take to make both potions?"

"The Parental-Guard, which is the cure, only takes a little over an hour to brew, though the Conventus is particularly complicated and takes about two weeks."

"Well then, if you'll be so kind to brew the potions, Severus, we'll wait as you finish them."

With a nod, Snape disappeared in the fireplace.

After saying their goodnights to the Headmaster, the pair made there way towards their quarters, where they got ready for bed. Ten minutes after getting into bed, a Silencing Charm was placed on their door, as to not awake Harry with their nightly activities.

Later, as Elisabeth lay in Sirus' arms.

"We'll have to ask Harry if he agrees with it tomorrow." Sirius said.

"And perhaps Zach too. Since he'll be getting a true brother. Maybe it's time to bring him here, so he can get to know you, and Harry too."

"I agree."

/\\/\

The following morning, Sirius and Elisabeth sat Harry down in their living room so they could talk. Harry looked a bit nervous, though.

"Don't worry, kid. You're not in trouble." Sirius said, rightly interpreting Harry's nervousness.

"What we want to talk to you about is your cure." Elisabeth said.

"We might have found a solution to it, but you need to be okay with it too." Sirius continued. "You know you'll need blood of your parents for the cure, and there is a way to make two people the parents of a child in practically every way the biological parents would be. Including blood."

"Of course Lily and James would still be your parents, you'd just get an additional pair, so to speak. The question is; would you want us, meaning Sirius and I, to take that place?"

"Of course we'd understand if you'd like two other people as your new parents..." Sirius chimed in.

"Have real parents again?" Harry asked, eyes wide, but otherwise with a fairly unreadable expression.

"Yes. Do understand we're not trying to take Lily and James' place." Elisabeth said.

Abruptly a smile crept onto Harry's face. "Really?" Then his smile faded a bit. "But I don't want to be any trouble to you..."

"You're no trouble, kid. I – We love you, remember that."

Harry looked startled, full of hidden hope. "You do?" He asked quietly.

"Yes." Elisabeth said with conviction.

"I'd like you to be my parents..." He bit his lip. "I – I think I love you two too..."

After a moment of silence, a three-way-hug ensued.

"But what about um, Zach?" Harry asked, looking from Sirius to Elisabeth and back.

"I talked to him earlier this morning, he's getting ready to come here and I'll ask him once he's settled in. Don't worry about it, he's a good kid." Elisabeth said.

/\\/\

Zach would be arriving somewhere the next day, and to say Harry was nervous would be like saying Snape was like a nice kitty.

Sirius wasn't faring any better though. It was his nine year old son he would be meeting for the first time after all.

The plan was that Zach would be brought to Remus' home, and they would Floo to Hogwarts then, as it wasn't regular to be Portkey'd right into Hogwarts, as wards protected the old castle and only the Headmaster could make Portkey's towards Hogwarts on exception.

At noon, the few occupants at Hogwarts (it was the summer holiday after all), were having dinner, though Harry was staring dumbly at his food and Sirius was toying around with his, untill Elisabeth ordered them to eat something.

Harry hastily complied, nearly choking in his food and Elisabeth had to calm him down again. Sirius however only nibbled a bit at his.

Then all heads turned towards the only fireplace in the Great Hall, situated in a corner, to see a small ball rolling out of the fireplace, that in one fluid motion straightened up into a boy. He held himself royally and he looked at the others with clear amber eyes of a slightly lighter shade than Elisabeth's, making them almost golden. His hair was black, neatly falling down his head, the only part of Elisabeth seemed the large expressional eyes and slightly turned-up nose, but further he was like a young Sirius.

He stepped out of the way as another person stumbled from the fire. Remus had a bit of trouble not dropping the trunk he was carrying, but he managed not to drop the trunk or fall himself.

"Mum!" Zach then said, spotting his Mother and running over to hug her, though pulling back quickly since there were onlookers.

"Hey, Zach. Miss me did you?" Elisabeth said.

"Only a bit." He said convincingly.

"Sure." Elisabeth chuckled, ruffling her son's hair and earning a scowl in the process.

"Zach, I want you to meet Sirius and Harry."

"Hi, Harry." Zach said with a wide smile, though a more reserved "hello" was directed at Sirius. Which didn't help the older man's anxiousness one bit.

"Why don't we get Zach's stuff to our chambers?" Elisabeth said. "Unless you're hungry, Zach?"

"I didn't really eat yet." Came the reply.

"That's alright. You go eat something and maybe Harry'd like to finish too, while Sirius and I will go put your trunk upstairs."

"Okay, Mum."

Zach sat down at his Mothers vacated spot, next to Harry, while Remus, too, sat down, taking Sirius' vacated chair at Harry's other side.

Harry looked nervously at the boy next to him as the adults started up a conversation. Zach was an inch or two taller than him, and looked nice enough, though Harry never knew how to act around kids. While he was younger, Dudley used to bully all of them away, so he never really got in contact with anyone his age. And with Snipe, making friends was virtually impossible as all he'd been allowed to do was train to fight and meditate.

Zach didn't seem to have that problem.

"So you're Harry..." He said. "I'm Zacharias, but almost everyone calls me Zach. Sometimes my Mother calls me Zacharias, but that's when she's mad at me and goes all 'Zacharias Llewellyn Black!', that's my full name, you see. Mum gave me my Father's last name, though I don't know why she called me after him." Zach had a slight accent to his English, though it wasn't very noticable.

"Don't you like Sirius?" Harry asked wondrously.

"Not really."

"Why not?" Harry asked earnestly. How could anyone possibly not like Sirius? Well, except Snape of course, but he couldn't compare the cheery boy next to him to sour Snape.

"I don't know. How do you like the guy that's been your Father but never once checked up on you in nine years?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know him that long yet, but he's the nicest adult I've ever met. I heard he never even knew you were born, untill a week ago. And I know he really wants to be your Dad. He's really nervous." Harry said, starting to feel comfortable around the other boy.

"Oh... Hey! What's your birthday?" Zach said, ever cheerful.

Harry scrunched up his face in thought. "I'm not sure..."

"You don't know your own birthday! Who did you live with anyway?"

"First my Aunt and Uncle, though they sold me to a man named Snipe. They weren't very nice, and Sirius calls Snipe a bastard, though he calls Snape that too, says it's in the name and the Dursleys, that are my Aunt and Uncle, should change their name to Snope or something like that." Harry said seriously, and for some strange reason Remus nearly choked on his chicken, getting some weird stares.

"Sorry," He said. "Swallowed too early."

"Your Aunt and Uncle sold you!" Zach then asked. "Why?"

"Because I turned into a half wolf/cat."

"You're an Animorphmagus too?" Zach whispered. "Wicked. I'm one too. A dog, Mum says I'm a German Shepherd, though I'm a bit small."

"What's a German Shepherd? And why are you whispering." Harry whispered back.

"A German Shepherd is a dog with pointed ears and usually pretty big, though I'm small, even considering I'm not fully grown." Zach scowled slightly. "I'll show you once. Then you've got to show me yours. And I'm whispering because Mum says I shouldn't tell anyone I'm an Animorphmagus. But you are one too, and I like you."

"I like you too. You're the very first friend I've had."

"I've had a few others, but Mum and I never were in one place long enough to really get to know anyone." Zach said in a normal tone again.

"Where did you live?" Harry asked.

"Many different placed, though mostly Italy, and Greace and Spain too a few times."

"So you know all those languages?" Harry asked.

"Yeah. But also French and German a bit, Mum insisted on teaching me that. How 'bout you?"

"I know Vietnamese, and a bit of Chinese and Japanese." Harry said.

"Was it nice there?"

"I didn't really see much of the country, only a whole lot of old warehouses. I was in the jungle once, with Sirius, and I was bitten by a tiger, but Sirius saved me."

"Whow! I've never seen a tiger. Though I did see dolphin once. He was funny... I'm done. Shall we go to Mum and Sirius?"

"Sure." Harry said, getting up.

Harry led the way towards the statue of the lion and said the password that Sirius had set to 'Gryffindor Rules'. He'd wanted to make it 'Snape's a sissy greace-head', but for some reason, Elisabeth hadn't allowed that. Even though she seemed rather amused herself.

Entering, they saw Sirius and Elisabeth talking quietly, though they looked up as they heard the door opening.

"Hey," Elisabeth greeted. "Eat well?"

"Sure." Zach said.

Harry merely nodded.

"Oh, Zach, we put your things in Harry's room. You'll have to share your room with Harry, as there's only two bedrooms in these chambers."

"I don't mind." Zach said.

"Me neither."

"Good. Harry? Why don't we do your training now, so those two can talk?"

"Okay."

When Harry and Elisabeth were gone, Zach and Sirius stood a bit uncomfortable in front of eachother.

"Why don't we sit down." Sirius suggested. They did just that, sitting opposite from eachother.

"So..." Zach said, this time breaking the silence. "You're my Father."

"Yeah..." Sirius said. "And I think I should apologize to you. I really should have read the letter your Mother sent me, saying she was pregnant of you."

"Why didn't you do that, then?"

"Because, frankly, I was kind of mad at your Mother at that time. But that doesn't matter now anymore. The point is that I was acting stupid and I hope you can forgive me..."

"Um... yeah... though I guess I already did that when I talked to Harry. He really likes you, you know."

"Yeah..." Sirius said fondly. "He's a good kid."

"You know, Mum told me you're an Animorphmagus too..."

The next hour, the two talked about all kinds of things, untill Harry and Elisabeth returned.

/\\/\

For the next week, the little family grew closer, and Zach was an expert at pulling Harry from his shell. After a while, it was virtually impossible to see one without the other. Zach told Harry all about his life, while Harry also told Zach bits and pieces of his life before Sirius. Zach was surprised to say the least at the things Harry told him, but the cheerfull boy always managed to get Harry to laugh along with him after such stories over one thing or another, which did wonders for Harry's shyness.

Five days after Zach's arrival, he was informed about the poison in Harry's body, which was starting to really become a trouble. Harry was unable to run, and walking long was very tiring. Just the trek down to the Great Hall made him rasp for breath. Zach was all too eager to have Harry become his brother.

"He's really nice, besides, I will have a permanent friend. One that doesn't need to leave!"

Another week and Harry's condition grew precarious. By the end of the week, even speaking long sentences were out of the question, not to mention walking. Madam Pomfrey now checked on him twice a day, and had noticed the poison was spreading to other organs as well. She gave him various potions to slow down the process, but slowly, the poison took hold of Harry.

Finally, the day arrived that Snape announced the potions to be ready. They gathered in the livingroom of Sirius' and Elisabeth's quarters, where Sirius placed Harry on the couch, next to Elisabeth, while he himself sat down on Harry's other side. Zach stood next to the couch, fidgetting a bit, which wasn't like him at all. Besides the family, Dumbledore, Snape and Madam Pomfrey were the only ones present.

Dumbledore would speak the incantations, while Snape and Madam Pomfrey were there if something, although unlikely, should go wrong.

Everyone knew what would be expected of him or her, and Dumbledore started chanting. After a good ten minutes, sparks in all colours sprouted from the tip of Dumbledore's wand, but they didn't die soon, instead, they drifted towards the couch and enveloped the two adults and boy sitting there.

Zach looked on, not being a part of the spell, but merely there as it was his family this was happening to. As the sparks covered the couch completely, they merged into a strange light. This was the time that Sirius and Elisabeth simultaneously put their seperate bowls of potion to their mouths and drank from it, before pouring the rest of the potion into Harry's empty cup, who then on his turn put the cup to his lips and drank it.

The light split into three seperate parts then, one for each person, and slowly, Sirius' and Elisabeth's lights drifted towards Harry. As the three lights merged again, it became a forest green and in it, Harry was changing. He grew an inch or two, his hair was tamed slightly, though still had a wild look to it. His eyes became a bit larger, courtesy to Elisabeth no doubt, and his fingers sleaker. Also his face-structure changed somewhat, his jaw becoming a bit stronger.

The light then dimmed slowly, but steadily, and would soon die out, when, out of nowhere, a beam of light shot from the pool around Harry and enveloped Zach, who was too startled to do anything. This wasn't supposed to happen... Zach was lifted a few inches from the floor, and Harry off of the couch.

Sirius made a move to do something, but was stopped by Dumbledore's held up hand.

"Let's see what happens."

The two connected boys drifted towards eachother, the light around Zach turned gold with a slight hint of green, while Harry's green became a bit goldish. Then, as if in a trance, but strangely decisive in their movements, they raised their right hands. They were now so close that the light around them started mingling again. It was then that they simultaneously pressed their right hands against the other's chest, right above the heart.

In a mere milisecond, the light intensified so much that all the onlookers had to look away.

When the light died down, the two boys were laying on the ground, eyes closed. The strangest thing though, was the fact that Zach's hair, previously black, had turned a golden brown colour.

Sirius and Elisabeth were with them in a second and were relieved when almost immediately, two pairs of eyes opened. They'd changed, though only slightly. Harry's green pools had a bit of gold right around his pupil, while Zach's gold had small green flecks around the pupils.

The two boys did look a bit shaken. Zach rubbed the spot where Harry's hand had been placed. Unbuttoning the top of his shirt, he looked and a phoenix was pictured on his chest. It was not more than four inches tall, but very clear. It's eyes were a deep emerald.

After seeing the tatoo on Zach's chest, Harry looked at his, blinked a few times and put off his glasses, then saw an identical phoenix in the exact same spot, only it's eyes were golden.

"What the hell just happened?" Sirius asked.

"Did it go wrong?" Elisabeth asked.

"Not nescessarily. Everything went well, it's just that there was an addition I believe. I think Harry and Zacharias have connected too."

"Why a phoenix, though?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

"The potion." Snape said. "One of the key ingredients was a phoenix' feather Fawkes donated."

Sirius in the mean time had put both boys on the couch, as Zach looked pretty shaken too.

"I think we'd best move on to the next potion." Dumbledore said then.

Snape handed Harry the next potion in a new cup. It was a swirl of colours, but Harry, who'd seen pretty much potions in the past weeks, drank it right away.

Harry then absently put his hands over a certain spot on his chest.

"It burns." He elaborated.

"Good." Snape said gruffly. "It's working."

"Tell us when the burning stops, alright, Mr. Potter?" Madam Pomfrey said.

Harry nodded.

Steadily, Harry's breathing became less forced and more natural, untill he announced the burning'd stopped.

Madam Pomfrey stepped forward to examine the boy with a few diagnostic spells. She smiled.

"It's gone."

AN: Snape maybe seems too quiet in front of Sirius, but you've got to keep in mind that he's been a colleague of Sirius for a year now, and Dumbledore has probably kept them in reign. That doesn't mean there won't be an occasional fight, of course! ;)

AN2: Sorry about the Snipe, Snape, Snope thing, I couldn't resist. Just so you know, I chose Snipe not because of the resemblance to Snape. I just noticed the similar names later.

AN3: Oh, and _Conventus Sanguinis Animaeque_ means 'Joining of Blood and Spirit', for anyone who'd like to know.

Also, I have a **question** for all of you. Elisabeth isn't a Lupin, as you've read in this chapter. I wonder if anyone could guess who her original family was?


	7. Don Rhona

Here's the next. As to the question of last chapter; only two have guessed it right.

Thanks for all the reviews, now: enjoy.

* * *

Three full days after Harry's healing, Harry spent sleeping. According to Madam Pomfrey the potion was making Harry's body rest to regain his full health.

In the mean time, Zach was getting used to, and marvelling about, his changes in appearance, he kinda liked them. Dumbledore explained the changes as part of the connection Harry and Zach had made. The eye colour was rather obvious, as well as the phoenix, but the goldenbrown hair colour needed a bit of explaining. Lily's Mother had had goldenbrown hair, which she passed on to her daughter, even though Lily didn't show it. And Lily in her turn, passed on the colour to Harry, who didn't get it either, but Zach, apparantly, did.

When Harry finally woke up, he had a major appetite, but further was perfectly healthy, which made Sirius and Elisabeth decide it was time they headed for their new home. Sirius' place.

Only a few days after Harry's awakening did they move into their new home, after Sirius had prepared Harry's and Zach's rooms.

They went by use of Floo Powder. Sirius went first with the little bit of luggage that he hadn't brought to his home the past days, Zach went after him, followed by Harry. Elisabeth went last.

Harry arrived into a small stone circular room, in which the only light came from a small window many feet from the ground.

As Elisabeth had arrived, Sirius led the way to a nearly indiscernable door and opened it to the warm and bright day outside.

In awe, Harry stepped out into the sun, looking around the huge courtyard they were in, though it was more a walled-in meadow. In front of them, a huge castle towered over them, though it's colour was identical to the rocky mountaincliff behind it. Many more mountain-like hills were behind the original.

"Harry! You've got to come see this!"

Harry hurried to stand next to Zach just behind the gate in the wall surrounding the courtyard. They stood on a heavy wooden drawbridge. Behind that, they had a lookout over an incredible plain with small hills to the right, and a dense forest in front of them and to the left. On the plain though, a herd of horses, mostly Black, ran, with many dogs running through them, also mostly black. The pack of dogs and herd of horses didn't mind eachother at all, just existed harmoniously side by side.

"They're quite a sight, don't they?" Sirius said from behind them.

"How many are there?" Elisabeth asked.

"A good thirty horses, and about twenty dogs. The dogs are all loyal, though tend to be independant. But when you really need them, they're quite a force. The same is with the horses. They're a bit magical, some of them more then others, and extremely intelligent. I've befriended one of the larger mares when I was younger, I named her Star, and when I have time, I ride her, but further, they stay to themself and take care of themself. They're impossible to tame, as many of my relatives have tried. You can only try and befriend one. You see the large black stallion with white in his mane and tail? He's the leader of the herd." Sirius explained. "And though she doesn't tend to show herself too often, here in the castle-moat is Lancarda, or simply Lance, a water-serpent. She protects the moat annex lake, along with her partner, though I've never seen him before. And sometimes the hippocampi come up too."

Harry's eyes drifted to the water, and the long stone bridge that went from where the drawbridge laid on it, with many turns, towards dry land a good 500 feet away. Along the lenght of the bridge, numerous stone statues stood in the water.

"Is this all yours, Sirius?" Harry asked.

"Yes. It's all ours, the whole island. Quite overwhelming isn't it? It's been in the Black family for centuries. There used to be a town near here too, but that was destroyed by Grindlewald years ago and never rebuilt. So now it's all Black family territory. Which is just us."

"What are all the statues?" Zach asked.

"For each member of the Black family, a statue was placed, in the form of an animal. The last one is mine. One day, we'll have to make the three of you one each too." Sirius pointed at the closest statue that was still many feet away from the drawbridge. It was in the form of a huge black dog with very dark sapphires as eyes. "Typically, most of the statues are black, though there are a few in other colours too."

"Why a dog?" Harry asked.

"Because my Animagus-form is a black dog."

"I thought it was a jaguar?" Harry asked confused.

"No, a jaguar is my Ani_morph_magus-form, there's also something called an Animagus-form, it doesn't have a middle-form, and it can be learned, though few manage to do so." Sirius explained. "Now, how about we go inside?"

Sirius led the way towards the huge Ebony front doors, which had a huge flamelike 'B' crafted in it. Next to the door were two enourmous statue's of rearing horses with their riders. Sirius pulled out his wand and tapped it one the door, opening it wide enough for them to easily step through.

"I mostly keep the door open, as it's way too heavy to open by hand, and I don't want to use my wand every time. Besides, you two, Harry and Zach, don't even have wands. So we'll keep it open." Sirius said.

They entered the castle and Sirius showed them the most important rooms. Including the livingroom, the kitchen, the dining room, the small living room (the one that was far more cosy than the huge primary living room), the library, Sirius' study (there were more of them, but they weren't in use), the owlery that held an owl or ten, and also the separate bedrooms with adjoining bathrooms. Sirius' and Elisabeths bedroom was situated on the second floor. Zach's one and Harry's one too, only in a different corridor. Zach's and Harry's ones were next to eachother, and they had a seperate bathroom each. Both of their rooms were done in royal blue and silver.

"They used to be green and silver, but that's way too Slytherin after my tastes." Sirius said.

Harry and Zach knew by now that Sirius and Elisabeth had been Gryffindors, though in different years, and that Gryffindor and Slytherin didn't really get along, to say the least.

"Say, Dad..." Zach asked, he'd only recently started calling Sirius Dad. "Why do you have your half-form on your door?"

"That's Grim. At least, that's what I call him. He's me. He's my Doorlocker."

"Doorlocker?" Elisabeth asked.

"Yes. Accidentally when James and Remus were busy making the Animagus-potion, I put in some wrong ingredient. James was only _slightly_ angry and one thing led to another, and we found out the new potion had an interesting property too. Combined with the Sticking Charm and a door, it creates an image of yourself on the door. In my case, it became my half-form."

"Whow! Can we have one too?" Zach asked.

"I was already planning on it. As they're very usefull. They prevent anyone from just entering your room. You just tell them a password and it'll only open for that. Only when you, yourself want to enter, it opens by itself."

"When do we do it?" Harry asked eagerly.

"As a matter of fact, I do have the potion ready in my dungeon... but..."

"Please?" The two boys chorused.

Half an hour later, they each had their own Doorlocker. Harry a wolf/cat, Zach a German Shepherd. He was a golden-brown one, and Elisabeth got her own almost white lioness with Sirius' jaguar. The process was really simple, you had to put your hand in the bluish potion then put it on the door and Sirius said a spell and it was done.

Harry called his Doorlocker Godric, and Zach in his turn named his Doorlocker Gryph. Elisabeth used Kefira, which, according to her, meant 'young lioness'.

The next few days were spent exploring by Zach and Harry, and getting to know the Rhona-elves.

Sirius had explained about the elves of Don Rhona; they weren't as slavelike as House-Elves, but a cross between the free Forest-Elves and House-Elves. They were loyal to the inhabitants of Don Rhona, as long as they were treated right. They were small, though Harry and Zach were only a head or so taller than them, and they had straight hair, mostly reaching past their shoulders. Their eyes were of all colours, including purple, red and yellow.

Harry now mastered his transformations to all of his three forms, and the two boys were often seen chasing eachother through the many halls and chambers of the castle, or through the forest or over the plain, running along with the horses and dogs.

Harry had also started teaching Zach some fighting. After Zach had found out about what Harry could do, he'd been extremely excited.

In turn, Zach taught Harry how to read, as he'd never been in school long enough to learn it (though Elisabeth did most of the teaching). Harry was a quick learner and became really interested in reading all kinds of things. From the history of the magical world, to fictional stories.

The two boys also seemed to rub off on eachother very quickly. Harry became more open and outspoken, while Zach became more self-conscious and got more interested in books.

One day, they were running around outside again, untill they were exhausted from all the running and laid down at the edge of the moat/lake. They drifted off a bit, untill they heard the splashing of water.

Sitting up, Harry saw several of the younger horses playing in the water, splashing up water and playfully biting at eachother. Zach and Harry watched them with interest, untill two young stallions, about two and a half years old, one black and one a dark red with black underlegs and black tail and mane, had playfully made their way to the two boys and were now eyeing them interestedly. They were twins, Harry remembered Sirius tell him once. There weren't many twins among horses, and these two were one of the two twins among the herd at the moment.

The two young stallions stopped only inches from the boys. Harry was the first to get into a crouch as not to scare the stallions and he stretched out his hand. The black stallion reached his head down and determined their was nothing worthwhile in Harry's hand.

By now, Zach was up too, he was standing in front of the red one and petted the elegant head carefully.

Suddenly, the two stallions turned on their hindlegs and splashed back into the water, looking behind them to see if the boys were following.

Zach and Harry shared a look, before running into the water and joining into the water-fest.

A few hours later, two exhausted, and in Harry's case sunburnt, boys entered the kitchen for supper.

Shaking her head, Elisabeth went to get some potion for Harry's skin and rubbed it on before they got eating.

/\/

Over the next half a year, the two boys became fast friends with the stallions, and they now rode them over the plain whenever they got the chance (and when the weather permitted it), Sirius often riding along with them on his Star, untill the summer ended that is. Harry'd called the black one Demon, while Zach called the other Devil, due to the colour of their fur.

Elisabeth watched them from time to time. She wasn't too eager to step on a horse and ride like mad as her husband and sons liked to do. Also, as the months wore on, another thing became apparent, she was pregnant again... And the child would be due in May.

At the end of the summer vacation of Sirius, he and Elisabeth had had their marriage. It was a small one, with only Remus and his family, a few other friends, and of course Harry and Zach attending, as neither of the couple had their parents left. Professor Dumbledore wed the two, as he was allowed to do so, and they didn't want some stranger coming into Don Rhona.

Sirius and Elisabeth had had their honeymoon the last week of Sirius' vacation, going on safari in Africa, and Remus watched Harry and Zach during that time.

Sirius was now gone during the weeks, though he dropped by on odd evenings, and in the weekends he was home too. Dumbledore had convinced him to continue teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, though Sirius only conceded after he was allowed to go home in the weekends and during the holidays. He also had demanded he'd return home in May, to take care of Elisabeth when the time came.

Remus also visited Don Rhona once or twice, apart from the time he'd looked after Harry and Zach, and he brought his wife and twins along with him too. He'd met Angy when he was in Africa for a few months. She was of mixed origin, her father a Dark Elf, her mother an American witch. She'd studied to be a Healer. Kaya was their daughter, and she was eight now, Kaya was only a few minutes older than her brother, Thomas. Angy was also pregnant for a second time, though her child would be born somewhere in Januari.

But first, Christmas was approaching.

* * *

This was a bit of a filler chapter, nothing really happens, except some explaining and settling in. The next chapter will have a bit more action. Review? 


	8. Christmas

Christmas arrived in all her glory. The land outside was covered with snow and every morning, there was a huge stampede as the horses came out of the stables and went over the drawbridge and every evening they returned to escape from the hard season.

The elves supplied oats for the horses, as there wasn't much to eat outside, and at times, also meat for the dogs, as their prey were fewer and harder to find.

On Christmas morning, it was storming outside, and when Harry looked out his window, he couldn't even see the ground below, so hard as it was snowing.

"Come on, Har! Presents!" Zach came bursting in the room.

"Presents? Why?"

"Because it's Christmas, you dolt!"

"For me too? Where?" Hary asked exitedly.

"In the small livingroom, under the tree. But we've got to wake Mum and Dad first."

Zach nearly dragged Harry from the room, untill Harry's brain caught up with him and he sprinted through the hall around the corner and skipped to a halt in front of the door with a currently sleeping jaguar and lioness on it. Behind them was a background of a lush rainforest.

"Sshh..." Zach said, his eyes twinkling with mischief. "Let's surprise them. _Dog-Breath_."

A sleepy eye opened and Kefira grumbled an 'okay' befor the door opened slightly.

In the blink of an eye, instead of two boys, their animal counterparts stood in the hallway, before they slunk into the room, prowling closer, they could distinctly hear the steady breathing of their parents.

The times that Sirius was home, the two boys would often try to prank their Father, mostly because of Zach, though Harry caught on more easily as time progressed. Sirius himself would come up with the most wild pranks, so they quickly learned to be alert whenever Sirius was at Don Rhona.

Zach nudged Harry with his head, then nodded his head in the direction of the glass pitcher filled with water on the bedside table next to Sirius' end of the bed, an animal grin coming onto his face.

He placed his front paws on the bedside table, before changing half, fully intend on pouring the contents of the pitcher over the unsuspecting heads of his parents. Something he didn't anticipate, though, was the fact that in his half-form he was quite a bit larger than as a full dog. So his pawlike hands roughly pushed the bedside table, making the pitcher sway dangerously, a large wave of water spilling over Sirius' and Elisabeth's heads, before the pitcher crashed in a million pieces on the floor.

With a catlike screach, as part of the pitcher had fallen onto his tail, Harry bounded off out the door, Zach only inches behind him.

They were just at a corner, when they heard heavy paws bounding after them. They didn't wait to look which one of their parents had decided to chase them. Though the logical guess would be Sirius, as Elisabeth wasn't too movable with the large belly of her.

They reached the stairs and Harry was down it in a few large bounds, and a yelp was heard behind him, as Zach, who'd miscalculated one of his jumps came rolling down. Harry was about to go see if Zach'd hurt himself, when Zach-the-puppy jumped up and ran on, his tongue lolling out in a dog-smile.

The chase continued, though they could tell Sirius was gaining on them. Harry was about to give it up and surrender to the chase, as they reached another staircase, this one leading to dungeons. Zach bounded down without a thought, and Harry only a split second later.

This time Harry miscalculated the depth to the end of the stairs and he lay sprawled onto the floor before scrambling up and following Zach through the maze of halls. This was unknown territory to them.

Finally, they hid behind the statue of a dragon that stood in a fighting stance.

With satisfied grins, they heard Sirius bounding past them.

As the sound of his paws touching the floor died down, they took the time to take in their surroundings, as it was a lot more spacious then they'd originally thought it'd be. Even though there was no lightsource anywhere, their animal eyes adjusted just fine to the dark and they saw they were in a very wide, hidden corridor.

Curiously, Harry was this time the one to be the first to venture further into the corridor.

At the end, a huge door blocked their path, on it were many carvings, mainly of dragons fighting humans. Harry changed into his half-form and looked back at Zach, who shrugged.

Reaching out, Harry pushed against the two metal dragons that were pictured as if fighting eachother and held eachother with their sharp claws. The door didn't budge.

"Here, let me help you." Zach whispered, and he pushed too.

Suddenly, the two metal dragons glowed brightly, the one Harry touched green and the one Zach was pushing against gold. Hurriedly, Zach and Harry pulled back their hands only to see the two dragons uncurling and the doors opening away from them.

Awed, the two boys walked forward into the huge circular room that looked big enough to hold the entirety of Hogwarts in it and then some more.

They jumped slightly as behind them the doors clicked shut, then the many torches along the walls lit up, lighting up the hall blue.

Below the many rows of torches, ten dragons stood along the walls of the room, all different, dangerous, yet intriguing. They were red, grey, green, blue, purple, black, yellow and different shades in between.

Harry and Zach felt really small between them. They walked on, untill they reached the middle of the hall.

In the middle of the room stood a stone chest that looked rediculously small in the room, but when the two boys approached it, was big enough for both of the boys to fit in, along with Sirius and Elisabeth, when they'd manage to open it up, that is.

On the chest, strange symbols were carved and on the side were more carvings of dragons, though strangely enough, there were also a few phoenixes.

The symbols looked vaguely familiar to Harry, though he was sure he'd never seen it before.

"Zach, these symbols..." He whispered.

"I've never seen them before, of that I'm positive, but I feel like I recognize them anyway."

"Yes. I feel the same..." Harry concentrated on the writing again and tried reading it out loud.

Apparantly, Zach felt the same, as they said together: _To the gifted humans that have been able to enter..._ Their talking sounded strangely like a mix between growling and hissing though.

Slightly alarmed, they looked at eachother.

"What was that?!" Harry asked.

"I – I don't know..." Zach said. "Should we read on?"

"It does seem like it's meant for us..." Harry said hesitantly.

"Yeah..."

The eyed the chest uncertainly for a moment, before Zach said: "Ah, what the heck, let's read."

They focused on the writing again.

_To the gifted humans that have been able to enter,_

_My final days are drawing to an end, and I'll return to my grave in the next room soon, but first I'll explain..._

_For thousands of years, we dragons have lived without fear, the only survivors of the famous dinosaur era. But now, we're either hunted, feared, or worshipped. We aren't able to live the way we used to. Not even here, at the castle of the once highly respected Dragon Lord. Dragons, all of my friends, foes, family members, have fled to the high mountains, where humans have yet to come. Only I, their former leader, remains, along with my only heir._

_My dearest Alisha Ambika. I've placed her in a magic sleep, and she'll only awake when the chest is opened after you've read this. I hope you'll help her find her place in the world she, and I, know nothing about. If you do that, my rest will be peacefull._

_Farewell... and good luck,_

_Acantho._

As soon as they'd read the name of, what they understood was, the now deceased dragon, the boys felt a rush of power surge through them, before the top of the chest lifted and floated away, untill it was resting on the floor next to the chest. They felt the same tingling on their chest as when they'd connected, so on impuls, Harry and Zach looked down at their phoenix-tatoo's, changing into their full human forms, to see the phoenix was joined by a white dragon just below it. The dragon and phoenix looked at eachother seemingly challenging eachother.

Peeking into the chest, they saw the slim, lizard-like form of a young dragon, with batlike wings and leathery skin. The thin but dangerous claws stretching as the dragon was starting to awake. She was no larger than the boys, but as she flexed her wings, they were twice as large as the boys. The most stunning thing, though, was the fact that the dragon was completely white, though looked a bit bluish in the light of the room.

After waking fully, Alisha Ambika stretched then looked at the two boys who were staring at her in awe.

_Hello._ She said_. So you're humans?_

_Uh... yeah._ Zach said.

_My Father's told me all about them, though I've never seen any._

_We've never seen a dragon before either._ Harry said.

_Well, I'm Alisha Ambika, but you can call me Ambika._ Ambika said.

_I'm Zach, and that's Harry_. Zach said.

_Nice to meet you_. Ambika said, it was quiet for a bit. _Are there any dragons left in this time?_

_Yeah._ Zach said. _Though the Ministry of Magic makes sure they don't get close to humans._

_Why?_

_Because dragons usually kill the humans they encounter._ Zach said.

Harry bit his lip, wondering what Ambika would say.

_Oh... well, you two seem nice enough._

They chatted on for a bit, untill Zach looked at his watch and said some choice words Elisabeth wouldn't have approved of.

_They're gonna kill us!_

_I won't let them!_ Ambika said heatedly._ I'm going to –_

_No!_ Harry said. _He means Sirius and Elisabeth._

_They're our parents._ Zach clarified. _And we're in major trouble for staying away for so long!_

_And they can't see you. _Harry said. _They'd have to take you away from here..._

_But we have to go now. We'll bring back something to eat._

_That's not nescessary... I'll show you later._

_Okay, we'll try coming back tonight._ Zach said.

They ran to the door (which was a ten-minute run), and it opened up as they arrived there. And they closed again as they were through it. They came out behind the dragon and followed their scent back to the entrance of the dungeon, untill they froze as a voice boomed through the dungeon.

/\//\

Sirius had followed the two boys into the dungeons with a grin on his dog-face. He wasn't really angry at the boys, but merely followed them as a game they'd often played in the castle. When Zach'd fallen down the stairs, and Harry'd smacked into the ground, he'd halted, scared they'd hurt themselves, and sighed in relief as they continued on.

But now it was over an hour ago that the two had entered the dungeons, and their scent was zigzagging through the dungeons, making it impossible to determine where they really were. He'd met Elisabeth ten minutes after their entrance into the dungeons, but even together, they were inept at finding the boys. Especially since Elisabeth needed to keep calm with her growing abdomen.

That was, untill Sirius saw two figures about to disappear behind a corner, not too far away from the stairs that led out of the dungeons.

Changing back into his human-form, he boomed: "Harry James Potter and Zacharias Llewellyn Black!"

Instantly, the goldenbrown and black figure froze.

Sirius strode towards them as they turned around, looking guilty. Now he wasn't in his dog-form anymore, his feline instincts were even harder to suppress. They were screaming at him to shake the two boys senseless.

"What in Merlin's name were you thinking? Staying away for so long?! Do you know how worried we were?! A chase is one thing! But disappearing for over an hour is completely unacceptable! Where have you been all this time?!" Sirius scolded.

Both boys looked at the ground, and Harry looked near tears, shaking a bit. Sirius felt bad for being the cause of that, but he'd promised himself to treat both boys equally, and they'd really been in for it now. He vaguely wondered when it was that he'd become... well... an adult! It was then that he realized that everything happening with Harry and all the worries over the past years were probably the culprits.

"Sorry..." Zach said. "We lost track of the time..."

"And what exactly were you doing?" Sirius asked sternly.

"Wel..." Zach said.

"We were playing that we were being chased by the evil Lord, who was seeking to feed us to the dragons." Harry said. "Like in one of the books I read."

Sirius found it hard to hold his composure at the large green and gold pair of eyes looking up at him from their respective furred faces. His instincts too, settled down as the jaguar looked at his errant cubs. Puppy-eyes should be made illegal...

"Just don't let it happen again, and I suggest you put on some warmer clothes instead of those pyjamas."

/\//\

Happy to be let off so easily, the two returned to their seperate rooms, and after changing, Harry went into Zach's messy room. That was one of the boy's bigger differences. While Harry was mostly tidy and kept his room orderly, Zach just dumped anything anywhere and weren't it for Elisabeth demanding he'd tidy it up before he could leave his room, it would have been a warzone by now. Besides, Elisabeth had told the elves not to clean the room as long as it was a mess.

"Phew... Dad's scary when he's angry." Zach said plopping down onto his bed.

"Yeah... tell me about it..."

"How'd you come up with that story, though?"

"Dunno, it just came to me. I did read a book like that once..." Harry said. "But I don't like lying to Dad... Should we've told the truth?" That was one thing Harry'd gotten used to over the past half year, calling Sirius and Elisabeth Dad and Mum.

"Nah... telling them you've found a friendly dragon isn't something you should do when they're angry. It'd be bad enough when they're in a good mood. Trust me."

"I still don't like it." Harry said.

"I know... hey! The presents! We still haven't opened them!"

With that thought in mind, the two boys thundered up to the third floor where the small livingroom, and in it the Christmas tree, was.

Inside, Sirius and Elisabeth were already waiting.

"Finally decided to grace us with your prescence?" Sirius asked with a grin.

Harry was glad he wasn't angry anymore.

"Yes..." Zach said in his royal tone, sticking his nose in the air. "We decided we have kept you away from our royal precence long enough."

"Then let your royal self grace us to hand out the first present." Elisabeth said.

"Why of course, dearest Mother of mine."

Zach picked up one of the packages, looked at the name, and with a bow, handed it to Harry. Harry decided to play along and took the package royally.

"Thank you, my most respected brother." He said, and Zach bowed again slightly to accept the thanks. That was more than Harry could take and snorted, before laughing loudly, soon joined by the others.

When they finally calmed down again, they continued opening packages. (AN: I have no idea what the usual age is for kids to hear Santa doesn't really exist, so Zach and Harry already know.)

Besides lots of sweets, the boys each got a broomstick and a promise that Sirius would show them how to play Quidditch. They also got some books, and for the two of them, there was a Quidditch-ball-set. Sirius and Elisabeth also got a couple of packages from friends of theirs. And Harry and Zach had also bought them presents. (Zach had ordered them by owl and they'd put together their pocket-money) They gave them shirts that said: Best Dad (Mum in Elisabeth's case) In The World. Then there were only two packages left.

One, surprisingly, was from Dumbledore.

Harry opened it and out fell a watery cloth.

"What...?"

"It's James' Invisibility Cloak!" Sirius exclaimed. "I wondered where that'd gone to."

"There's a note." Zach said, picking it up and handing it to Harry.

"Dear Mr. Potter," Harry read. "This was left to me by your Father, James Potter, before he died, and it's rightfully yours. Use it well. Sincerely, Albus P.W.B. Dumbledore."

"Wicked!" Zach said.

"I suggest before you go and try out that Cloak, you open your last package, before it gets impatient." Elisabeth said.

Curiousity peeked, Harry and Zach turned to the last package, that was rather large. Both their names was on it.

Zach picked it up, and sat it down between them. "It moves..."

Harry pulled loose the green ribbon, then Zach tore off the red paper. The lid of the box then lifted a bit, as a small black nose peeked out.

Zach lifted the lid, to see a fairly large kitten looking up out of the box. It was crème-coloured with black-brown stripes, much like a tiger.

"She's a magically bred cat, though it isn't sure who exactly her parents were." Elisabeth said. "I figured that since we have horses and dogs already, a cat would be nice too."

"Thanks!" The boys chorused, hugging their Mother, mindfull of her growing stomach.

"So, what are you going to name her?" Sirius asked.

The two boys thought for a moment, before looking at eachother and nodding.

"Rogue." Harry said.

"Rogue." Zach affirmed, nodding.

Harry picked up Rogue and put her down out of the box.

They played with the kitten for a while, then watched as she jawned and curled up under the tree to sleep some.

Minutes later, Elisabeth called the boys for breakfast.

After their belated breakfast, or rather, brunch, the boys were told to put their presents up in their rooms.

"And Zach, please do it orderly!" Elisabeth said, knowing even if he managed to put them orderly in his room, it would remain like that only minutes.

The day went by very fast, as the two boys played with Rogue, and their other new things. Elisabeth had decided they would skip lunch, because they'd had brunch already, and the sweets were downed pretty fast too.

The dinner was excellent, compliments to the elves, and Elisabeth's famous applepie as desert.

After dinner, the two boys went back to Harry's room, full and tired, but not yet ready to go to sleep, even though they'd said goodnight to their parents already.

Rogue was sleeping in on one of the beanbags that was in Harry's room, like she'd been when they'd left for dinner.

Harry put down a dish of some food for her when she'd awake, before he grabbed his new Invisibility Cloak.

"Let's try it out, right?" He said with a grin.

Zach grinned back. "Yes. Ambika will be waiting I imagine."

Harry put the Cloak around the two of them, before they left the room, heading for the dungeons once again.

It took them a while to find the statue of the dragon again, but they managed in the end, and entered the Giant Hall again. As they entered, the lights went on again, and the doors closed. A sleepy Ambika could be seen peering over the edge of the stone chest.

_Zach! Harry! You're back again!_ She hissed enthusiastically, before jumping out of the chest and flying towards them.

_Of course we're back! We couldn't just leave you here to die of boredom!_ Zach joked.

_I wish I could fly like that! _Harry said wistfully.

_Hey! I know, we could bring our brooms one day!_

_Brooms?_ Ambika asked.

_Yeah, we wizards, that are humans that can do magic, can fly on broomsticks. I've done it once in Italy and it was really great, but I couldn't keep a broom of my own as we moved a lot and we were in the Muggle world more often than not. Muggles are non-wizard-folk by the way._ Zach said.

_But how did you get food?_ Harry wondered.

_I hunted!_ Ambika said proudly.

_In here?_ Zach asked, looking around at the practically empty room.

_No, there nothing more in here than a rat or two. My Dad showed me the way out of here before he died. Another way than those doors._ Ambika said. _Come on, I'll show you._

Harry and Zach ran after the quick dragon as she flew to the other end of the room.

Panting, they reached where she was waiting for them.

_Noble Lord Aerias, let us through._ Ambika then growled at one of the ten statues. It was the dark green one, with wicked claws and a spiked tail.

Harry and Zach jumped in shock as suddenly the mouth of the dragon opened to reveal sharp rows of teeth.

_"Enter, my greatgranddaughter and her friends." _He said in a deep voice, before moving aside, to reveal an enormous opening behind him in the wall. Big enough to let the dark green dragon, Aerias, through without a problem.

Ambika led the way through the very long and very large tunnel, untill finally, they reached the end.

Harry and Zach were surprised to find themselves not too far from the edge of the forest in a clearing. The only thing hiding the entrance were a great number of boulders that were now arranged around the hole.

_"Wicked!"_ Zach said.

_"Would you like me to catch you something too?"_ Ambika asked.

_"No, thank you, Ambika,"_ Harry said. _"but we've already eaten a lot, and it's also a bit too cold out here at the moment. Sorry."_ Harry and Zach were only wearing jeans and a jumper, which wasn't that much in the snowy night.

_"It's alright. Maybe another time. We go back now?"_

_"Yeah..."_ Zach said, his teeth chattering.

They went back through the tunnel, the rocks rearranging themselves again to hide the entrance. When they reached the other end of the tunnel again, Ambika said the password again, and they could enter the Giant Hall again.

The two boys left rather soon again, as they were starting to get really tired, and they'd be having company the next day.

Back in their rooms, they were out like a light.

* * *

AN: So, what do you think of Ambika? For anyone who'd like to know, her name means Goddess of Destruction, while Alisha means Noble. So she's the Noble Goddess of Destruction...

AN2: About Sirius; like he thought to himself, he's had a lot to worry about since Lily and James' death, so he grew up, even if he didn't go to Azkaban. I'm trying to make him like a fun-loving Father, but with a more serious side too. Especially if he's worried.


	9. Guests

On Boxing Day, Harry was awoken by the rough tongue of Rogue licking his face. Groaning a bit at the early wake-up, he knew sleeping on was out of the question. So he got out of his bed and dressed up warmly, despite all the Warming- and Isolation-Charms were set on the castle, the dungeons could be quite cold, and he was certain an excursion there would happen somewhere during the day, or else they'd go outside.

He glanced at his bedside clock, and saw it was just 5 in the morning. Knowing it would be virtually impossible to wake up Zach at this hour, he scooped up Rogue and went for the library, determined to know more about dragons, and why they were able to talk to Ambika.

Rogue settled on Harry's shoulder as he went through the many rows of books. He finally settled on a promising book called: _Dragons; All You Want To Know_.

Going back to his room, he sat down in a comfortable armchair and looked through the entensive index. His attention was quickly drawn to a chapter called '_Parselmouths_'.

Flipping to the right page, he read:

_Most wizards and witches are aware of the fact that there have been Parselmouths, although few, throughout the history of the magical world. Research, however, has concluded that Parseltongue is a combination of three different kinds of animal-speach. It includes Draketongue, which is dragontalk, Salmandratongue, lizardtalk and Slythertongue, the latter often, and falsely, referred to as Parselmouth, since it is merely a part of Parselmouth and it is the infamous ability to be able to talk to snakes. Parselmouth, especially Slythertongue, is nowadays considered a Dark trait._

Reading on for a bit, Harry found that the rest of the chapter consisted of a number of stories about the three different kinds of animal-talk.

He then went to read about the history of dragons, and how they lived today, and before he knew it, Zach burst into the room.

"Wakey wakey!" He shouted happily, before stopping short when he noticed no-one was occupying the bed. He then spotted Harry in the armchair. "Oh, you're awake already..." Then he added: "You didn't have a nightmare, did you?"

"Nah, Rogue just decided to wake me up at 5." Harry said. In the beginning, he'd often had nightmares, about his previous life, but luckily, they were now few and far in between. Zach had once heard him during one. "I got this book about dragons from the library. Here, read this." Harry flipped towards the page he'd read about Parselmouths and handed Zach the book.

Zach read through the paragraph.

"So we're Drakemouths? Wicked!"

"Maybe we can talk to snakes and lizards too." Harry said. "We should try that out once!"

"Try talking to snakes? Are you mad?! What if they bite?"

"Are you stupid? There lives this supposedly friendly snake in the lake, right? We'll just have to wait for her to come up once."

"Oh. Right, forgot about that."

"Obviously." Harry grinned. "Now come on. We're supposed to be in the small livingroom when Remus, Angy, Kaya and Thomas arrive."

"What time are they coming anyway?" Zach asked as they made their way through the castle.

"Didn't you listen yesterday when Mum told us?"

"Nope."

"They arrive at eleven o'clock, that's in thirty minutes. And I don't think Mum would like it if we dropped in the minute before they arrived."

"Yeah. I remember this one time in Italy, when Uncle Remus came to visit. I kinda overslept and Mum nearly went ballistic. Of course, it could have to do with the fact I was supposed to help her in the kitchen, as we didn't have any house- or Rhona-elves there." Zach said.

Five minutes later, they arrived in the small livingroom, where no-one was yet. So they decided to play around with Rogue a bit, who still had been perched on Harry's shoulder.

After a little while, Zach suddenly sat up straight.

"Hey, I've got an idea!" He said with his mischievous glint firmly in place.

Before Harry could ask what this idea was, Zach changed into a dog. He playfully pounced at Rogue, who suddenly stuck up all her hairs and hissed frightenedly.

"Zach..." Harry warned, as Zach prodded the cat with his paw again. "Watch out!"

But it was too late. Rogue sped off to hide up on Harry's shoulder again, and Zach yelped in pain. Quickly turning into his human self again, he carefully tried touching his nose, where four gashes were visible, tiny drops of blood appearing on them.

"Ouch..." Zach winced and narrowed his eyes at the feline on Harry's shoulder. "Stupid cat!"

"I did try warning you." Harry said.

"Yeah, yeah, rub it in, will you..." Zach said grumpily.

"Should I go get Mum? She did do magical first aid..."

"No need to get me anymore. What happened?" A feminine voice came from the door.

"We were playing with Rogue..." Harry said. "And – "

"And I thought it would be fun to play with her as a dog." Zach finished grumbling. "Rogue didn't agree."

"Never mess with cats, son." Sirius said. "Believe me. I know."

Elisabeth shook her head, taking out her wand. "You really had it coming that time, love."

Sirius grumbled something, sitting down on one of the couches. Elisabeth said a quick spell and Zach's cuts disappeared like snow before the sun.

"What did you do then, Dad?" Zach asked.

"It was her bloody cat." Sirius said. "He always seemed intent on irritating me as much as possible. One day I had enough and changed into Padfoot, intend on chasing the annoying little monster up a tree or something. But instead, he attacked me." Sirius shook his head. "Bloody monster."

"I hope you're not talking about me, now are you, Padfoot?" Remus had just arrived at the fireplace.

"No. He was talking about Mums cat." Harry said helpfully.

"Oh you mean Snowbell? Yes, I remember him..." Remus said with a grin.

In the mean time, Angy, Kaya and Thomas had arrived through the fire too. Angy was short with long midnight hair. Her ears were pointed and elegant, her eyes large and orange. Her skin was a very dark brown, due to the fact that her father, as a Dark Elf, had black skin. Her daughter was much like her, only Kaya's eyes were Remus' baby blue, while Thomas had a slightly lighter colour of hair, and the same blue eyes, both twins had light brown skin and pointed ears, their eyes also large.

"Hello, Angy." Elisabeth greeted her new friend. "How's the baby coming along? Why don't you sit down?"

"She's coming along fine." Angy said as she sat down with a bit of Remus' help. "Moving around a lot though."

"I know what you mean." Elisabeth said. "Zach wouldn't keep still for a moment either. He still doesn't. Though Harry's almost as active as Zach is..."

"We're going outside, alright, Mum?" Zach said, not waiting for an answer and nearly pushing Harry out of the livingroom, leaving Rogue in the room. Kaya and Thomas were right behind them.

"Phew." Zach said. "I had to get out of there, before they're really starting up the baby-talk. I don't know how Dad and Uncle Remus can stand to hear it for so long."

"Baby's are cute you know." Kaya said.

"Yeah, but you're a _girl_." Zach said in a way that suggested that fact explained everything.

Seeing Kaya was about to retort, Harry said: "Why don't we go skating on the lake? There's a really big piece that Lance hasn't broken."

"But we don't have skates with us." Kaya said.

"We could ask Dad to transfigure you some." Harry said.

"Fine by me. But I'm not going back in there!" Zach said. "Let Kaya ask."

"Why me?" Kaya asked heatedly. "Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean you can boss me around!"

"Yeah well you're also younger than me!"

"So? Let Tommy do it then! He's the youngest of us!"

Seeing Thomas, who was always very quiet, look alarmed, Harry said: "I'll do it! If the two of you are too chicken!"

Before they got over the shock of Harry saying a thing like that, Harry had stepped back into the room where the adults were, to return with four pairs of skates five minutes later.

"They said we've got to be careful." Harry replayed to the others. "We can't go close to where the ice stops and the water starts, so we won't fall in."

"Let's go then!" Zach said, grabbing a pair of skates that were his size.

Ten minutes later, the four kids were on the frozen lake.

Harry had only skated once before, and was so far lucky enough not to fall. Zach, however, had no such luck. It was also his second time, seeing he'd grown up in Italy.

Kaya was showing off her skills on the ice, that were way above Harry's and Zach's, while Thomas was as good as Kaya, though he didn't show off nearly as much as Kaya.

While Kaya was annoying Zach, once again, by circling around him, Thomas was giving Harry pointers. Untill they were alerted by Zach's shouting.

"I can take you on anytime!" He yelled at Kaya, who was skating far ahead of him.

Kaya turned around with a grin. "Prove it then." She skated so she was next to Zach. "Who reaches that pile of snow the first."

"You're on!" Zach said competetive.

Harry shook his head, he really hoped Zach wouldn't fall, that way, he would at least have a chance.

Harry and Thomas skated towards the pair.

"I'll give the starting sign." He said.

"Then I'll go stand at the end." Thomas said. "To make sure you don't fight over who won."

Harry smiled. He had to hand it to Thomas. He might not be that talkative, he did know his twin.

Harry waited untill Thomas had reached the end, before giving the starting signal.

"Ready? GO!"

To Harry's surprise, Zach had a remarkably better start then Kaya did. The latter slipped a bit as she started and Zach had a bit of a headstart due to it.

Harry crossed his fingers, hoping Zach wouldn't fall. Only twelve feet to the finish... Zach was still in the lead. Ten feet... eight... six... four... three... two... one...

"YES!!!" Zach exclaimed, jumping in victory, forgetting he was standing on ice, and falling as he landed.

Kaya looked down at him and grinned.

"Grin all you want, but I did beat you! Hah!" Zach said, attempting to stand, only resulting in him falling again. The next attempt did succeed.

Suddenly, Harry felt the pressence of something large.

"WATCH OUT!" He yelled, but it was too late, as the foot-thick ice broke right beneath where the three others were standing. But instead of falling through, they were whipped up in the air as a huge head rose through the hole in the ice, followed by an equally as huge scaled body.

Harry stood frozen as his brother and cousins fell into the icy water. The snakelike beast, probably Lance, looked around herself wondering where the three kids had gone. Where are they?

_IN THE WATER!! GO HELP THEM YOU IDIOT!!!_ He yelled, not even realizing he wasn't talking in English.

Lance instantly looked at Harry, before nodding and turning to the water.

Harry skated as fast as he could to the ragged edge of the water, where Thomas was getting onto the ice, though having trouble doing so. Harry helped the boy out.

"Go inside and to your mother as quick as possible." He said to the dripping boy.

Thomas immediately skated off, shivering as he went.

Harry's eyes reverted to the water, searching for Kaya and Zach, fear seizing him. Kaya wasn't anywhere in sight, but Zach was swimming between large chunks of ice. Harry breathed a sigh of relief as Kaya appeared above water on Lance's head, who swam the girl to the drawbridge.

Zach, in the mean time, was hard trying to get onto a chunk of ice, but every time he tried, the ice almost toppled over.

"Zach!" Harry yelled as the boy disappeared under the water, only to reappear seconds later. Zach was tiring quickly... He looked pleadingly in Harry's direction, opening his mouth, though no identifiable sound could be heard. Harry knew exactly what he said though: _'Harry! Help! I can barely keep moving!'_

Concentrating, he turned into his wolf/cat-form and raced over the ice to the closest place on the ice to Zach. He slipped a few times, but soon used his claws for grip. Backing away from the edge, he took a run and jumped onto the closest chunk of ice and dug in his claws to not slide off on the other end. Using other pieces of ice, he approached Zach. Some of the ice-rafts nearly toppled over, but he managed to reach Zach without falling into the water himself.

With Zach, he changed half and dug his toe-nails into the ice, reaching out with his hand for Zach.

Zach took the offered hand gratefully, their eyes locking. Harry pulled Zach onto the ice.

'_Thanks.'_

"We're not away yet." Harry said. "Can you change?"

Zach nodded. He was already starting to turn blue.

"I can carry you then..."

Zach changed into the small dog and Harry changed fully too. Even though they weren't fully grown, Harry was still about twice as large as Zach and he picked up Zach carefully at the back of his neck. Zach startled a bit, but stayed calm, for which Harry was gratefull. It was hard enough as it was.

Gathering his strength and courage, Harry jumped and reached the next ice-raft. It swang precariously, but luckily, didn't topple over. The nex jump was a long one, Harry took the longest run possible before jumping. He made it, though his back-legs slipped, his nails finding no grip and he slid into the water, before his front-claws found grip and he hung into the water from his chest and down.

The water was so cold it was like a thousand needle were punctured into his body. Panic was overwhelming his thoughts, but an almost animalistic will to survive took over. Concentrating not to grit his teeth into Zach's neck, he pulled himself up onto the ice.

After a few more jumps, they'd reached the main ice. Harry didn't slow down though, but raced towards the stone bridge. Zach felt way too cold in his mouth, and he himself was shivering pretty badly. Running over the bridge, he saw his parents reaching the drawbridge. Angy and Remus weren't with them, though, and neither were Kaya and Thomas. Lance was not too far from the drawbridge.

_Sorry,_ Lance hissed. _I only wanted to play..._

Sirius pointed his wand at Harry. "Accio!"

Harry was jerked forward and felt himself flying through the air towards the adults, Zach still in his grasp.

Sirius caught them expertly. Elisabeth immediately took over Zach, then muttered the Drying Charm twice to dry up the two nine-year-olds. Now that he was dry, the cold wasn't as biting, but Harry was far from being warm.

"Stay as you are. Your fur will help you get warm." Sirius said as he put his cloak around Harry's shivering form. Elisabeth doing the same with Zach, also rubbing the small form as they quickly walked towards the castle.

/\//\

Half an hour later, four kids sat in front of the roaring fire of the heart in the smaller livingroom, wrapped in heavy blankets and dressed in dry clothes. Angy had given each a cup of Pepper-Up Potion, and Harry'd instantly felt warm again.

Only Zach was shivering once in a while.

"We did tell you not to go too close to the water." Elisabeth said.

"We didn't." Zach said.

"Lancarda suddenly crashed through the ice." Harry went on. "Right where Zach, Kaya and Thomas were."

"Why would she do that? She didn't try to attack did she?" Angy asked concernedly.

"Lancarda never attacked before." Sirius said.

"She didn't attack." Harry said. "She wanted to play."

Silence... then:

"Why do you think so, Har?" Elisabeth said.

"Erm..." '_Parselmouth, especially Slythertongue, is nowadays considered a Dark trait._' The sentence from the book suddenly flashed through his mind. 'What if they'd hate me? I don't want to lose them!' "Well, why would she save Kaya and Thomas if she attacked first?"

/\//\

Later, after Remus, Angy, Kaya and Thomas had left, and Harry was in his bed, he was unable to fall asleep.

He hadn't exactly lied to the others, but he felt bad for not telling the real truth. Sirius and Elisabeth, and Zach too, had been so kind to him. He really felt at home here. But he was afraid they'd abandon him when they found out he had a Dark ability. True, Zach could also talk to dragons, but obviously not to snakes, as he hadn't told about hearing Lance tell she only wanted to play...

Why did he always have to be so different? Why wasn't he ever normal? All he ever wanted was to have a family that didn't hate him... be normal... be loved... He didn't want to ruin that.

But he didn't want to lie either, but how could he tell them this?

He really wished he could be like Zach and not have to worry about telling Sirius and Elisabeth about a thing like this. And he knew that Zach would just say he shouldn't worry and just tell them... But he couldn't... the risk was too big for him to take...

But that didn't pacify the turmoil in his mind. And he laid tossing and turning for quite some time, before falling into a fitfull sleep. And for the first time in quite a while, he had nightmares of his past, mixing with the present. There was no-one to comfort him, save Rogue, to whom he clang onto for dear life.

* * *

It's a bit of a depressing end of the chapter, but it can't all be sunshine and roses. Hope you liked it. And what did you think of Kaya and Thomas?

I'm also REALLY REALLY sorry to say this is the last chapter I've written, and will probably write, of the story... for the full explanation, please look into my profile...


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